811.34553B/7–944: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Portugal (Norweb)
1951. Your 2116, July 9, 7 p.m.90 The failure of Dr. Salazar to satisfy our wishes after months of discussion in the course of which his attitude has generally seemed encouraging has created an impression that we have been held off with faint hopes. At present a feeling of keen disappointment and discouragement pervades every branch of this Government cognizant of our negotiations. Meanwhile we have gone ahead in complete good faith and with remarkable speed in satisfying to the best of our ability the economic requirements of Portugal.
We are prepared to continue to support Portuguese economy in so far as possible and this Government hopes to maintain the relationship of cordiality and understanding recently established with the Portuguese Government. It must be borne in mind however that in view of wartime stringencies the position of the State Department vis-à-vis the supply agencies and the Chiefs of Staff will be secure only if adequately supported by attentiveness on the part of the Portuguese Government to our requirements.
The Department is unable to understand the hesitancy of Dr. Salazar to grant in full our requirements in Santa Maria and in Lagens. To hesitate further will mean the operation of accumulative harm to vital American and United Nations interests and will risk jeopardizing Portuguese interests in the Pacific. The Department feels that Dr. Salazar should be told with complete frankness how the position [Page 47] is viewed here and urged in the strongest terms to agree now to our proposals concerning construction, use, and control in Santa Maria and to our proposal to place an operating Navy squadron in Lagens.
The Department feels that Dr. Salazar should accept without question the statement of this Government which is based upon a decision of the Combined Chiefs of Staff of Great Britain and the United States as to the necessity for the additional field in Santa Maria and the operating squadron in Lagens. As between the two, Santa Maria should be concluded first, but the Department perceives no reason why the Prime Minister should not forthwith grant both of these desires. On the contrary the prompt granting of these desires is obviously and strongly in the interest of Portugal. (Your 2113, July 8, 2 p.m.)
- Not printed.↩