711.52/271

The Ambassador in Spain ( Hayes ) to the Secretary of State

No. 746

Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a Note No. 767, dated March 19, 1943, which I left with the Foreign Minister on March 22 protesting against the pro-Axis attitude of Spanish publicity agencies, particularly the press and radio, and against the efforts of the Spanish police to interfere with our informational activities.

The Minister received my protest sympathetically, but without much comment, although I know from other sources in the Government that he is engaged in a continuous struggle with Falange to overcome the conditions concerning which I protested.

The British Ambassador,12 in agreement with me, has made similar representations to the Foreign Minister.

The Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs,13 in conversation recently, stated confidentially that Spain’s position vis-á-vis the Axis would be much more “comfortable” once we had expelled the Axis from Tunisia.

I, of course, intend to press this matter with the Foreign Minister and am hopeful of obtaining an improvement in the situation.

Respectfully yours,

Carlton J. H. Hayes
[Enclosure]

The American Ambassador in Spain ( Hayes ) to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs ( Jordana )

No. 767

Excellency: I have the honor to refer to various communications from my Government to Your Excellency’s Government guaranteeing that no aggression will be committed by the United States against Spanish territory or Spanish sovereignty; to the Spanish Government’s acceptance of these guarantees; to General Franco’s expression of hope to President Roosevelt14 that nothing might happen which would disturb Spain’s relations with the United States in any of their aspects; and to numerous statements by Your Excellency that Spain intends to follow a policy of impartiality toward both sides in the present war.

My Government, of course, viewed Spain’s prompt acceptance of our guarantees with satisfaction, and has confidence in General [Page 599] Franco’s expressed desire that relations between Spain and the United States shall not be disturbed in any of their aspects. Needless to say, I likewise have full confidence that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Your Excellency’s wise direction is endeavoring to ensure that General Franco’s wishes in this regard, which correspond to the wishes of my Government, are carried out.

Nevertheless, I am constrained to point out to Your Excellency that certain agencies of the Spanish Government, particularly those agencies having to do with press and propaganda activities, are following a policy of marked partiality toward the Axis which is tending to defeat the Caudillo’s announced policy, and which, in fact, is prejudicing good relations between our two Governments.

The Spanish press continues to give excessive and systematic prominence to news and tendencious articles from Axis countries, and to feature alleged Axis victories while systematically minimizing Allied victories. There is evident in this practice a concerted and determined effort to impress the Spanish people with the superiority of the Axis over the United Nations and to create among them a strong preference for the former. Many Spanish newspapers still do not publish war communiqués from the United Nations despite the various promises made to the Embassy by the Foreign Office that such communiqués would be published, and doubtless, too, despite the efforts of the Foreign Office to obtain the publication of such communiqués.

Many Spanish newspapers are prevented by the Government’s censorship authorities from publishing American news photographs, and even those newspapers which occasionally publish them are obliged to publish a very much larger number of Axis news photographs.

American magazines are systematically prevented from being imported and sold in Spain, whereas Axis magazines, most of which are of a frankly propaganda nature, are permitted to be sold freely and constitute a large portion of the current reading matter available to the Spanish public.

The efforts of the Embassy and of the various American Consulates in Spain to distribute informative material are systematically interfered with by the Spanish authorities. Employees of the Consulates have been arbitrarily arrested and detained by Falange authorities; individuals who have called at the various American offices for such material have been assaulted or intimidated by Falange agents; persons have been fined for reading it; the list of persons to whom it can be sent has been arbitrarily reduced by the postal authorities, et cetera. In contract, the Embassy has evidence that the Germans are afforded facilities to distribute their propaganda material [Page 600] of all kinds freely both to Spanish authorities and to private individuals.

This Embassy, consonant with the wishes of the Foreign Office, has refrained from distributing propaganda material which the Foreign Office considers objectionable. The Germans, on the other hand, distribute freely through the Spanish post office material of an offensive and scurrilous nature, including vulgar caricatures of President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt. Recently, also, a large number of pro-Axis caricatures have begun to appear in the Spanish press.

The Spanish Government-controlled radio is notoriously partisan in its presentation of foreign news. For months past, it has confined itself almost exclusively to broadcasting news and propaganda from Axis sources.

Likewise, the Spanish Government-controlled news-reels convey to Spanish cinema attendants pictures largely Axis in origin and overwhelmingly Axis in intent.

Since it must be evident that in the present total war psychological warfare has a very important place, and that the Germans have attached a great deal of importance to such warfare, it should be evident also that in giving special facilities to the Axis to carry on psychological warfare in Spain, while depriving the United Nations of the opportunity adequately to combat it, Spain is in effect giving aid to the Axis which is clearly not consonant with Your Excellency’s expressed attitude of impartiality toward both sides in the war, or with General Franco’s expressed desire that nothing should occur which would disturb the relations between Spain and the United States in any of their aspects.

The relations between Spain and the United States are, indeed, being prejudiced by the present marked pro-Axis partisanship of all the instruments of publicity within Spain—press, radio, cinema news-reels. Few Americans understand how a Government which directs and controls all such instruments can permit them to be so seemingly desirous of Axis victory, and at the same time can profess a desire to stay out of the war and be impartial. Unfortunate as it is, popular suspicion of Spain’s real intentions is thereby engendered in the United States, with embarrassing consequences to my Government in its dealings with Spain.

Despite my Government’s preoccupation with possible effects of the pro-Axis publicity campaign conducted by agents of the Spanish Government, I have refrained from protesting formally against this evidence of partiality toward our enemies in the belief that Spain’s foreign policy of impartiality would, through Your Excellency’s efforts, become manifest not only in the attitude of the Foreign Office, but in the attitude of other agencies of the Spanish Government.

[Page 601]

This has unfortunately not yet been the case, and I am now obliged to protest on behalf of my Government, and to express the earnest hope that the Spanish Government as a whole, and not merely the Foreign Office, will promptly adopt an attitude fully consistent with the treatment which is being accorded Spain by the United States, which is the treatment accorded to a neutral country.

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to Your Excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.

Carlton J. H. Hayes
  1. Sir Samuel Hoare.
  2. José Pan de Soraluce.
  3. For text of General Franco’s message to President Roosevelt, November 10, 1942, see telegram No. 1766, November 12, 1942, from the Ambassador in Spain, Foreign Relations 1942, vol. iii, p. 308.