811.34553B/7–2544: Telegram
The Ambassador in Portugal (Norweb) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 25—7:34 p.m.]
2300. Culbertson and I called on Salazar this p.m. and discussed with him Long’s letter4 which had been delivered last night. He had a few questions of detail with regard to the figures and while he [Page 61] said he felt it was a little expensive, nevertheless the figure was all right and he would at once send Long a letter confirming the arrangement. He authorized the movement of personnel, equipment and material at once and arrangements were made for Serrano to leave here on Monday5 via Casablanca for Lagens. He thought a Portuguese boat could be made available to transport the preliminary party to Santa Maria. I again raised the question of the use and control, and in reply Salazar went into considerable detail about the manner in which he operates. He says that he makes one step at a time in his operations and once each step is taken it is final and you know exactly where you stand. We have now taken the first step on building the airfield and the other questions will follow. He brought out that the decision with regard to the Pacific was large and important for a country as small and poor as Portugal.
He considers this first step to be a big one and at the same time a courageous one considering its implications and added that he could well use that money for the construction of a hospital or the Republic [other public?] facilities here. I repeated as I have before our desire to have no misunderstanding with regard to what the United States wants in the way of use and control. He made it clear that there was no misunderstanding on this point but could give no promise at this time. In this connection he asked when Culbertson was returning as he wishes Culbertson to be the bearer of his reply to the President’s letter.
Ostensibly as he said taking advantage of Culbertson’s presence but not unconnected with his decision on Santa Maria he went into a long discussion of the Supply Purchase program and expressed his earnest hope that some decisive action would be taken at an early date. I will cover the Supply Purchase question in a subsequent telegram.