852.48/1463: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 30—12:54 p.m.]
758. I delivered the following note to the Foreign Minister this morning:
“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Ministry’s note verbale number 182 of March 25, 1943 stating that the Spanish Government has ordered the complete closing of the Pyrenees frontier to those persons not in possession of legal documentation. I have transmitted the contents of this note to my Government.33
This Embassy has been assured by the Foreign Office on a number of occasions that the Spanish Government would not return refugees of belligerent or occupied countries to the countries of their origin or to territory occupied by the enemy without their consent. I should like to be able to inform my Government promptly that this policy of the Spanish Government has not been modified in any degree.
I avail myself of this occasion to renew to Your Excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.”
My 734, March 27, 11 a.m. repeated to Algiers for Murphy.
- Transmitted in the Ambassador’s telegram No. 734, March 27, 11 a.m., not printed.↩