811.20 Defense (M) Portugal/1476: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Portugal (Norweb)
1363. Your 1416, May 10, 8 p.m. Dr. Salazar’s proposal is altogether unsatisfactory and you should convey this to him as urgently as possible. In doing so you may say to the Prime Minister that what we are interested in is a complete and immediate suppression of the flow of wolfram to the enemy. We are convinced that in applying a complete embargo as a measure in the national interest of Portugal the Portuguese Government will be acting within its sovereign right and will afford no grounds for complaint from any quarter for discrimination or unneutral conduct. You may add that the Portuguese Government by adopting this measure now of its own initiative will give great satisfaction to the public mind of all the United Nations and will immeasurably improve Portugal’s international position. Any hesitation will arouse public feeling and impair seriously the relations which until now have been kept upon a most cordial basis. As you will be aware from another cable being sent you, our press is following these conversations very closely and has already begun to comment with some asperity on the fact that Portugal continues to supply wolfram to Germany.
Repeated to London.72
- Repeated to London on the same date as No. 3856.↩