811.248/2–845: Telegram
The Chargé in Spain (Butterworth) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 9—1:58 a.m.]
291. I called on the Foreign Minister today at his request. Lequerica said that he hoped that we were satisfied with the arrangements worked out about the Air Transport Command and the rapidity with which they were concluded and that he wanted the United States Government to understand that they would be implemented with a ready disposition on the part of the Spanish Government. Lequerica further stated that since it was a most unusual procedure to permit an army air transport command to operate through a neutral country, it had to be clothed in a certain manner but the Spanish Government wished to be most helpful to the United States and to contribute to the rehabilitation of Europe and European stability and the ATC would find that when its operations began the Spanish authorities concerned would in practice interpret liberally and he felt sure to our satisfaction the terms of the proposed arrangement.
Repeated to Lisbon as 18.