852.6363/276
The Spanish Embassy to the Department of State
Memorandum
The Spanish Embassy acknowledges receipt of the memorandum of the Department of State of the second instant in which it is good enough to announce that the American Government has decided to grant the necessary licenses to permit the Spanish tankers Campilo and Zorroza to proceed to load gas oil in Port Arthur and Aruba respectively.
At the same time the Department of State emphasizes in its communication referred to that, as the Spanish Government in replying to the American memorandum of January 13 last22 seems to offer a basis for the intensification of commercial relations between the two countries, the Department cannot support in advance new license applications for petroleum products so long as the Spanish Government does not adopt the necessary measures to insure shipments to this country, in important quantities, of those Spanish products mentioned in the American proposal.
The Spanish Embassy cannot do less than to manifest the surprise it experiences at such a decision in as much as the Spanish Government, far from reducing to a minimum, as the American Government has the shipments toward Spain, has facilitated and constantly increased exportations of its products to this country to the best of its ability. The comparative list attached hereto23 is a striking proof of this affirmation.
The tabulation referred to clearly demonstrates that the Spanish Administration has never interrupted the shipment of its products to the United States, as the American Government has, and therefore the attitude that the Department of State says it proposes to adopt is not understood in as much as precisely what the Department asks of the Spanish Government has already been done, is being done, and will continue to be done.
The Spanish Embassy takes the liberty therefore of requesting the Department of State again to analyze the situation taking into account the circumstances pointed out and hopes that it will recommend the granting of the necessary licenses to permit the tanker Campuzano, now in Port Arthur since the month of November, to proceed to load. With this end in view the Spanish Embassy takes the liberty of recalling the contents of its memorandum of January 28 last, calling attention to the extremely grave situation prevailing in Spain especially [Page 273] as regards agriculture and the fishing industry due to the scarcity of gas oil, which cannot be remedied with the cargoes alone of the Campilo and the Zorroza.
Also, the Spanish Embassy cannot do less than to point out to the Department of State the absolute impossibility that products supplied by Spain to the United States “have a real relationship to the usefulness to Spain of the products this country may supply” as is textually Asked in the memorandum under acknowledgment, for it is evident that from the point of view of utility they are unequal, since those which Spain sends to North America are not so essential as those which Spain requires.
The Spanish Embassy also desires to emphasize once more the definite proposal of the Spanish Government to do whatever is possible to satisfy the demands of the American Government so long as the latter is disposed on its side to satisfy the essential needs of Spain as far as possible.
In conclusion the Spanish Embassy repeats once more the disposition of the Spanish Government to give absolute guarantees insuring that those products received from the United States will be solely and exclusively used within the national territory and for the benefit of the Spanish people.