811.34553B/6–546: Telegram

The Ambassador in Portugal (Baruch) to the Secretary of State

top secret
us urgent

505. For Culbertson. I have just received reply dated June 3 from Salazar to my note of May 3042 expressing our desire to continue discussions on long term facilities. This reads in translation as follows:

“I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency’s note of May 30 last in which you inform me that although Gen Kuter and Mr. Culbertson had received instructions to return to Washington the Govt of the US desired to continue the conversations recently opened in Lisbon by the British and North American Govts to consider the possibilities of new agreements between the three Govts regarding the Azores.

“It is a pleasure for me to renew to Your Excellency by means of this note the oral communication already made to Your Excellency as well as to the British Ambassador by the Director General of Political Affairs that the Portuguese Govt is entirely agreeable to the continuation of these conversations in the most friendly spirit and in conformity with the points of view already expressed in the Portuguese memo of May 2 last.43 However as the Director General of Political Affairs personally stressed to Gen Kuter and Messrs Culbertson and Zanthaky44 at the Ministry of FonAff upon the establishment on May 30 [Page 999] last of an agreement by exchange of notes regarding the Azores fields the obligations assumed regarding this matter by the Portuguese Govt are exclusively those mentioned in the agreement referred to.”

Baruch
  1. Not printed.
  2. See Salazar’s statement of May 2, 1946, quoted in telegram 433, May 16, from Lisbon, p. 978.
  3. Apparently the reference is to Theodore Anthony Xanthaky, special assistant to the Ambassador in Portugal.