740.00112 European War 1939/5739½
The First Secretary of the British Embassy ( Wyndham White ) to the Assistant Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs ( Villard )
Dear Harry: Please refer to my letter of May 29th35 about the projected economic accord with the Spanish Zone of Morocco. You will recall that with my letter under reference I sent you a paraphrase of a telegram from His Majesty’s Ambassador in Madrid whose conclusions were summarised somewhat as follows:
The first step is for General Orgaz to make his case with the Spanish Government and to have a better liaison with them. This, he [Page 465] should be able to do by availing himself of strong army influence. If the Minister of Commerce then shows that he is anxious to have goods supplied to the Spanish Zone we could make special efforts and concessions on our part to see that they get them and still foster what feelings of independence we might like to see there. If, on the other hand, we persist in separate negotiations which did not find approval with the Spanish Government we run the risk of spoiling our chance in the main negotiations with the Spanish Government which are now being pursued with a certain amount of success.
We have now had a telegram from the Foreign Office in London saying that they agree generally with the above. On the other hand, although it may not be possible to reach any agreement with General Orgaz there is, in the view of the Foreign Office, every advantage in continuing to show our interest in Spanish North Africa and letting the General understand that if he can secure the consent of the Central Government, the U.K. and the U.S. would be prepared to do what they can to grant economic assistance to Spanish North Africa.
I may add, for your information, that we have heard from Tangier that the Commissioner is now in Madrid, possibly until mid June.
Yours ever,
- Not printed.↩