852.75 National Telephone Company/7–1844
The American Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs (Jordana)53
Excellency: I regret that I again find it necessary to refer to my Note No. 2001, February 10, 1944, with which I transmitted a copy of a memorandum submitted by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, New York, to the Presidency of the Government regarding complaints and claims against acts of the Spanish Government [Page 427] and in some instances the failure of the Spanish Government or its representatives to act, thereby prejudicing the American investment in the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España.
In that Note I requested Your Excellency’s good offices to assure full and prompt consideration of the arguments set forth in the memorandum of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. Your Excellency informed me on February 16, 1944, that my Note had been transmitted to the Presidency of the Government. I again alluded to this matter in my Note No. 2258, April 4, 1944, and in a personal note to Your Excellency of May 6, 1944.
More than five months have passed since the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation delivered its memorandum and I am now informed by the president of that corporation, Colonel Sosthenes Behn, who is now in Madrid, that no action has been taken on any of the claims and complaints set forth nor has the company received any definite indication that the memorandum is receiving the attention of the Presidency of the Government.
As I believe it is the sincere desire of the Spanish Government to act promptly to correct a condition which has prejudiced in the past, and will continue, until remedied, to prejudice, the American interest in the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España, I should appreciate the intervention of Your Excellency to avoid further needless delays.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department in despatch 2751, July 18, from Madrid; received July 29.↩