853B.20/45: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Portugal ( Fish )

355. No reply has been received to the Department’s 319 March 31, 9 p.m. or to the Department’s 326 April 1, 10 p.m., and the Department has now received an even more disquieting report from Ponta Delgada, to the effect that the signal described in the Civil Governor’s circular of March 28, referred to in the Consulate’s telegram of March 2922 (upon which all foreigners including consuls would be required to concentrate) was sounded shortly after midnight of April 4 and is expected to be repeated, and that it is feared that in the state of excitement reportedly existing threatened executions may be carried out.

Unless the Portuguese Government has responded to representations already made by you in this connection, and in compliance with the Department’s cable instructions to you, in a manner completely reassuring, indicating that appropriate instructions have been issued to the insular authorities, you will lodge a firm protest with that Government at once and report currently all further developments. In your communication you should state that the demands of the insular authorities as reported would be incompatible with the rights and duties of an American consular official and that he is not in a position to comply with them.

The Consul has now reported that he has been requested to furnish the names and addresses of all American citizens resident in the island. Under the Department’s general instructions information of this character should not be divulged, and he has been instructed to inform the Civil Governor that he has not been authorized to comply with these unusual requests and that the views of the Department are being communicated to the Portuguese Government. You will so inform the Portuguese Government, setting forth the expectation of [Page 236] this Government that the insular authorities will proceed with due regard for the duties of American consular officials, their necessary freedom of movement, and the confidential character of their official records.

Welles
  1. Telegram No. 97, p. 232.