853B.014/27
The Portuguese Minister ( Bianchi ) to the Secretary of State
Excellency: I did not fail to transmit to my Government without delay Your Excellency’s reply to my note of May the 30th and have been instructed to thank Your Excellency for the careful attention, Your Excellency states, Your Excellency gave that communication.
The Portuguese Government have taken due note of the declaration contained in Your Excellency’s reply regarding the United States policy of non aggression and the motives for which the Portuguese Islands in the Atlantic were mentioned in the address delivered by His Excellency the President.
At the same time, however, the Portuguese Government—and I am requested to convey it to Your Excellency—can not but regret that, in the presence of a precise request for clarification contained in the final paragraphs of their note, and involving the concrete revindication of the sovereign rights of a friendly power, the Government of the United States of America should not have gone beyond a generical and vague declaration which did not even refer individually to the very country in question, and failed to assert whether or not they maintained the former declarations made by the Secretary of State.
I avail myself [etc.]