852.48/795: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 3—2 a.m.]
693. I called on the Foreign Minister this morning and informed him of my interview with the Chief of State, details of which I said had been communicated to my Government. I also handed him a note [Page 842] setting forth the conditions under which my Government was disposed to send a shipment or shipments of wheat through the Red Cross together with the text of the proposed press statement.
The Minister, who seemed a changed man from my last interview, spoke with deep gravity of the desperate situation in which Spain finds itself and the necessity for prompt aid in the form of wheat in substantial quantities. He seemed to feel that any Red Cross wheat that might be made available would hardly touch Spain’s vital needs until the next harvest which needs, he said, approximated a million tons.
I pointed out that wheat through the Red Cross represented a gift and that a shipment or shipments in this form could be made through executive action while credits for wheat and raw materials necessarily required negotiation. The Minister remarked that negotiations consumed time. To which I could only reply that that depended on the negotiators, at the same time assuring him with the statements made to me by the Caudillo which were now before my Government plus his response accepting the several conditions laid down in the matter of wheat through the Red Cross. The question would be promptly studied in Washington and I felt that no undue delay need be anticipated. I asked if he did not think that the mere fact of beginning negotiations would be a helpful thing to which he said very emphatically—”Only provided relief comes”.
The Minister who said that I would have a formal reply to my communication tonight indicated that our conditions would be met and again emphasized the necessity of prompt action.
It is confirmed to me that this morning certainly one bakery in Madrid and probably another were held up by armed men. The British Ambassador informs me that he has reports of bread riots in Zamora. I therefore venture to emphasize the humanitarian aspect of this general question.
The British Ambassador whom I have informed of the general progress of the above negotiations said that there was a certain quantity of wheat in Canada amounting to over 100,000 tons which might be made promptly available to the Spanish Government if this were desired. I asked him if this might be paid for out of the sterling agreement formally signed this morning (see my 694, December 2, 2 p.m.47). He replied in the negative adding that Spain was practically already overdrawn under that agreement. My interpretation of this is that it is British policy to continue to subsidize the Spanish Government so long as it can hold it neutral, something which the Ambassador remarked the British General Staff considers of highest importance.
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