352.0022/60: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Weddell)
36. The Chilean Government has informed this Government of the requests it has made of the Governments of the other American republics for support in the controversy it is now having with the Spanish Government with regard to the question of political refugees in the Chilean Embassy in Madrid. It has informed this Government that it fully recognizes that the Government of the United States cannot officially support its thesis with regard to the giving of asylum in diplomatic missions to political refugees because of the consistent [Page 781] policy which this Government has pursued over a period of many years in this regard, but it has nevertheless asked for the interposition of our friendly good offices for the purpose of furthering a satisfactory solution of the dispute which has arisen between Chile and Spain.
The Chilean Government has been informed, through the Chilean Ambassador in Washington, that this Government as it anticipated, did not feel it possible to make representations to the Spanish Government in support of a policy with regard to the giving of asylum in diplomatic missions which this Government has consistently refused to support in the past, but that if there were anything which the American Embassy in Madrid could appropriately do within the limitations described to indicate the hope of the Government of the United States that a friendly solution of the difficulties which have arisen might be found, it would be instructed accordingly. The question is consequently left to your discretion. If you feel that any useful purpose would be served by expressing the hope of the United States that a friendly solution of this problem may be found, you are instructed to express such hope in the name of your Government informally and orally.