340.1115A/1241: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:45 p.m.]
408. Department’s 176, July 25, 3 p.m. Following telegram has been sent to American Embassy at Rome.
“July 30, 1 a.m. Your 722, July 15, 5 p.m., to the Department.32 Spanish Ministry of Interior will not waive requirement of recommendation by American Embassy or Consulate as a matter of principle. However the Ministry states that if this Embassy will inform it of the number of American applicants for Spanish transit visaes in the various cities at which we have offices the Ministry will authorize the Spanish Consuls to visa American passports up to this total without requiring individual recommendations. Your Embassy and the several Consular offices may then submit to the Spanish Consulates lists containing the names of the American applicants together with number, date and place of issuance of their passports. The Spanish Consuls will then visa without individual recommendation the passports of Americans whose names appear in these lists. Your Embassy and the Consulates may of course submit a series of lists if necessary.
For your information this is approximately the same procedure by which this Embassy was able to obtain the passage through Spain of some 800 Americans stranded along the Franco-Spanish frontier. This Embassy will inform the Ministry of Interior immediately upon receiving your estimate of the number of Americans who will present themselves at our several offices.”
- Not printed.↩