811.20 Defense (M) Portugal/1526
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius)
Lord Halifax81 called upon me this morning at 12:30 at his request. He had just returned from his two weeks’ trip through the middle west where he had made twelve speeches. He was encouraged with the reception he received during this trip.
The purpose of Lord Halifax’s call this morning was to take up with us the contents of the aide-mémoire delivered to him yesterday afternoon relative to Portuguese wolfram.82 He introduced the subject by saying that he was disappointed that we should have taken such an extreme position in the matter, and was concerned over the reaction that this aide-mémoire caused in the Foreign Office in London.
In addition, he stated that he had received this morning a message from Anthony Eden asking that he see us promptly and express the hope that we would not force the British into an impossible position in dealing with Portugal.
Lord Halifax stated that at the time of the Spanish negotiations on wolfram, there was already a temporary embargo. Therefore, during the discussions, no wolfram was going forward, but in this case, if we insist on lengthy discussions related to complete embargo, actually 30 to 40 tons of wolfram a week would continue to flow from Portugal to Germany.
Lord Halifax stated that their compromise proposal of 20 tons a month, beginning immediately, in place of the 150 tons a month that the Germans had been receiving, he felt, was making great headway, and when one considered the fact that Germany’s wolfram needs were 4,000 tons a year, and under this arrangement for the next four critical months she would only be getting a total of 80 tons, he felt was a reasonable approach.
He specifically stated that in the month of April, 140 tons of wolfram had gone to Germany, and the lengthy talks would just mean more wolfram to Germany.
Lord Halifax read to me the draft of a cable that the Prime Minister was sending to Salazar, which he stated Mr. Thorold83 had shown to a member of the State Department yesterday. Lord Halifax did not remember to whom it was shown.
Lord Halifax then left with me the attached envelope84 on which he had scribbled this morning the figures which Mr. Thorold of the [Page 115] British Embassy had given him, explaining in detail how they arrived at their 20 tons a month.
Lord Halifax, while calm in presenting the matter, seemed quite agitated, and appealed to us to review the matter again today in the hope that we could find some means of relaxing our position as set forth in our aide-mémoire of last night.