711.52/205: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Weddell) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 8—5:38 a.m.]
886. Reference Department’s 539, October 6, 8 p.m. A petroleum expert of the Ministry of Economic Warfare recently arrived from London in order to investigate similar reports. During the last 4 days he has made an intensive study of petroleum figures furnished by CAMPSA. He reports that he has found no hesitation on the part of CAMPSA in furnishing him with the figures he has required or in showing him the books and other records of the company and he has found no discrepancies among these figures and records. He has already suggested to CAMPSA that the British authorities be permitted to check the amount of petroleum products unloaded in Spain in order to make comparisons with cargoes loaded and CAMPSA immediately agreed to this procedure. The British authorities are proceeding to establish a system for carrying out such checking of cargoes both on the peninsula and in the Canary Islands.
It is the opinion of this expert of the British Embassy that refueling of Axis vessels by Spanish vessels is not being carried on in any systematic way or with the consent or knowledge of the Spanish Government or CAMPSA. He said it was conceivable that there might be isolated cases of individual masters of tankers supplying small quantities but the acute shortage of petroleum products in Spain, due principally to delays on the part of the United States Government in issuing export licenses makes extremely improbable any systematic supplying of Axis vessels on the high seas.
With reference to possible shipments from Spain to Axis destinations, he has found no evidence yet of any such shipments and believes that there is no systematic shipment of petroleum products to the Axis countries. Again he and the British Embassy recognize that there are probably isolated cases of small quantities of petroleum products disposed of clandestinely but they consider that the aggregate amounts involved would be insignificant.
[Page 931]This Embassy has no information which would lead it to reach other conclusions than those set forth above. In this connection it would be of interest to this Embassy to know whether the officers and men of Spanish tankers referred to in the Department’s telegram mentioned, allege that they actually witnessed the transfer of petroleum from Spanish tankers to Axis vessels.