711.52/422a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)94
3073. For the Ambassador and the Under Secretary.95 As you are probably aware, the British Ambassador called upon me last Saturday afternoon96 to convey a message from the British Government giving its view that the latest proposal of the Spanish Government, [Page 387] as to the shipment of wolfram to Germany at the rate of 60 tons between now and July, and the balance of 240 tons to be shipped during the rest of this year, should be accepted, and the shipments of petroleum products to Spain be resumed forthwith. After giving careful study to this situation over the weekend and making a survey of the attitude of public opinion in the country with respect particularly to the situation of the neutral countries furnishing war supplies to the enemy, I asked the Ambassador to call upon me this morning.97 I told Lord Halifax that this question of making arrangements with neutral countries under which we agree that there shall be shipped from these neutrals to our enemies war materials which have the direct result of killing our soldiers, was a matter upon which there was the strongest of public opinion especially in view of the long continued propaganda activities against this Government running back to 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. I said to Lord Halifax that in view of the fact that the British, as they say, must continue to procure a number of strategic war materials from Spain, and for other reasons to which the British seem to attach great importance, and as Great Britain therefore would seem to have a special interest in the situation which we do not have, just as in the case of Argentina the British had a special interest which we did not have, it would seem to me entirely logical and practicable for the British to sponsor the oil shipments which would be a counterpart to the arrangements they might wish to make with regard to the shipment to Germany of wolfram and other commodities which are involved in the military situation. I therefore told the Ambassador that I desired in all earnestness to urge that if the British believe these shipments to be necessary they should undertake the responsibility and sponsorship for the shipments of oil from Shell Oil or other British facilities in the Caribbean for carrying in Spanish tankers, and that this seemed to be the only logical way out of both of our difficulties in meeting the situation each from our own particular point of view.
The response from the press and the people generally throughout the country in supporting the statements I made in my speech of April 9 with regard to our attitude toward the neutrals shows how clearly and how strongly the American public feels in this matter. I regret the necessity of taking this position, but I see no other alternative in the face of the strength of public opinion here against agreements with neutrals on the basis of which they supply important war materials to the enemy.