740.0011 European War 1939/6623: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Weddell)
16. Your 635, November 12, 1 p.m.2 Please seek an early occasion to discuss with the Foreign Minister2a the situation at Tangier and recall to him the contents of your note of November 11, 1940.3 Point out that although this Government is not a party to the Tangier Statute4 it not only has extensive rights in Morocco, based upon treaties, custom and usage, but also, as an important naval power, it has an inescapable interest in any developments taking place in Tangier which would be likely to alter the neutral character of that port and district. Add that in view of recent developments at Tangier, which your Government has observed with some misgivings, the attention of the Spanish Government is again invited to the above-mentioned American rights and interests in Tangier, in order that there may be avoided any future misunderstanding which might hinder the progress of those friendly relations which we are anxious to develop with Spain.
Please leave with the Foreign Minister an aide-mémoire in the sense of the foregoing and report the results of your conversation by telegraph.
Repeat to Tangier.
- Ibid., p. 792.↩
- Ramón Serrano Suñer.↩
- For text, see Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 297, November 9, 1940, 6 p.m., to the Ambassador in Spain, Foreign Relations, 1940, vol. iii, p. 789.↩
- Convention regarding the organization of the statute of the Tangier Zone, signed at Paris, December 18, 1923, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xxviii, p. 541; agreement of July 25, 1928, revising this Convention, ibid., vol. lxxxvii, p. 211.↩