811.20 (D) Regulations/4564: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Weddell)
508. Your 831, September 15, 5 p.m. The Department has checked with the Industry in this country and is assured that gasoline of a type within the new definition “G” designated in the control regulations as “other motor fuel” is obtainable in this market. Moreover the Department’s records fail to show that any application for export license for Spain for gasoline within this definition has been rejected since the new restrictions became effective, and as you are [Page 917] aware we have been able to give Spain licenses so far for as much petroleum and gasoline as Spain was able to import with its tanker capacity. The Department has been in constant contact with the Spanish Embassy in this connection and fails to understand the contention of CAMPSA that in effect an embargo has been placed upon gasoline for Spain.
The Department is very much interested in your reports looking to the improvement of our economic relations with Spain. These reports come very aptly at this time in as much as licenses are just now being issued for the gasoline and kerosene cargoes of the tankers Campoamor and Campuzano, which are the only Spanish tankers known to be in American waters at present.
Despite a free access to this market in the past and a constant disposition of this Government to cooperate with Spain in the solution of its economic problems, the Franco Government has shown no desire to reciprocate and indeed has furnished no evidence of any wish to extend or improve relations with the United States. On the contrary, its whole policy has been to exclude in so far as possible American enterprise and investment and to restrict its purchases in this country to an irreducible minimum of necessities not available in any other market or only available at great cost. In view of this experience in the recent past and of our Government’s continued disposition to give sympathetic consideration to Spain’s requirements, subject only to the limitations imposed by the present international situation and of our defense needs, the Department will be glad to have from you an immediate report in detail upon the nature of the contributions which Spain may now be prepared to make toward cooperating with us in our efforts to improve mutual relations. It must be understood that our task of supplying Spain’s needs will become increasingly difficult and that if we are to continue to make the effort, it will be necessary for the Spanish Government to demonstrate concretely now a willingness to cooperate with us and to adopt a more normal attitude toward you personally.
Ambassador Cárdenas is scheduled to leave by Clipper today under instructions to consult with his Government.