852.48/1464: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Hayes)
730. Your 757, March 29. You will be advised today by separate telegram of the allocation of $100,000 of American funds for refugee relief.
The French North African authorities have now authorized the French American Banking Corporation in New York to make two transfers—one for $100,000 and the other for $150,000—to the account of the Spanish Foreign Exchange Institute for use by Malaise in the care of French refugees in Spain. It is our understanding that the first of these transfers has already been effected and that the second will be cleared within the next day or so. We are also informed that the French authorities intend to authorize the transfer of an additional $250,000 within the next few days. When this has been effected, the full sum of half a million dollars appropriated by the French for the refugees in Spain will have been transferred to Malaise.
Is the projected evacuation of refugees to Portugal now proceeding satisfactorily? Have you any reason to believe that, if the majority of the French refugees now in Spain should be evacuated, the Spaniards might be inclined to reopen their northern border to admit additional French refugees?