853B.7962/8–1347
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. William B. Dunham of the Division of Western European Affairs
During his call on me this afternoon, Dr. Rocheta1 said that the Ambassador had asked him to state, in connection with his discussion with Mr. Reber and me yesterday, that the Embassy had just received the pouch from Lisbon which contained a copy of the Portuguese Memorandum of July 25.2 The Ambassador’s judgment was that this did not represent an official document but merely constituted a written record of an informal conversation. He felt that, while we might be dissatisfied with the “formula” contained in this paper, nevertheless the opening paragraph did indicate that the Portuguese Government was quite willing to permit the US the continued use of the airfield at Lagens. It now remained to agree upon a time period and the formula.
I explained to Dr. Rocheta that we understood that this Memorandum was merely informal. One of the things which troubled me about it, I said, was the fact that Ambassador Wiley had been assured by the Foreign Minister that the two of them would conduct the discussions. However, shortly after the Foreign Minister left Lisbon, Ambassador Wiley was handed this Memorandum by a lower official of the Foreign Office.
I also told Dr. Rocheta that we were disturbed by the formula which this Memorandum contained. I told him that with all due respect to the abilities of the Portuguese Air Force, the Portuguese Minister of War had agreed at one time in the recent past with our Military Attaché for Air and our commanding officer in the Azores that the Portuguese personnel at Lagens were not yet capable of taking over the many services which must be rendered there to our aircraft. The training of Portuguese personnel was going forward, but as he knew this was a long process and until their personnel was trained up to our standards, our Air Force people would not wish to consider turning over the essential services rendered our aircraft; they would wish to perform these services themselves.
[Page 1032]I also explained to Dr. Rocheta that we were under an obligation, in view of our current agreement, to begin by September 2 making our plans for the evacuation of Lagens and that it would, of course, be desirable, if possible, to reach some firmer agreement in principle before that time if the evacuation was to be unnecessary.
Dr. Rocheta indicated that he understood these problems and said that the Ambassador, who was still without instructions on the subject, was writing to Lisbon for further information.