852.75 National Telephone Co./371: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain ( Weddell )
168. Your 379, July 17, 8 p.m. The failure of the Spanish Government to carry out its promises to restore the management and control of the telephone company to the American majority stockholders, as provided in the memorandum agreed upon by Behn and Suñer and approved by Franco on May 18 (your no. 128 of that date), certainly does not place that Government in a position to raise for consideration [Page 891] other questions in which it may be interested. As that Government must be aware, we have been prepared to cooperate and to assist in arriving at satisfactory arrangements of a number of matters on which it has approached us during the past year. We have expected, of course, that the Government of Spain would in fact accord to American rights and interests in Spain just and equitable treatment in accordance with the principles of international law. As mentioned in our no. 41 of April 11, 7 p.m., formal assurances to this effect were given by the Spanish Ambassador in Washington on July 28, 1939, acting upon specific instructions from his Government. As we have made clear on a number of occasions we will not bargain on this point, and you should again emphasize this fact if the occasion arises.