853B.7962/10–2447: Telegram
The Ambassador in Portugal (Wiley) to the Secretary of State
875. Have seen Foreign Minister. I told him in detail my trip Azores, of excellent impression I received there; that I doubted if in entire world there was a more happy example of international collaboration and that I doubted if one would find more satisfactory formula than conditions as now exist. I discussed with him conditions there in detail. I referred to Portuguese susceptibilities. I told him I thought these [Page 1044] susceptibilities were limited to very few Portuguese indeed and that I myself would not call them susceptibilities but superstitions.
The Foreign Minister told me inter alia that although Dr. Salazar had promised to show him the report of General Cintra he had not done so. He felt very much as I did about the Azores but regretted to say that Dr. Salazar’s views were more rigid than his although he added that Dr. Salazar was most anxious that a mutually acceptable agreement be reached.
Dr. Salazar, the Foreign Minister explained, felt that the time had come for us to get on a technical basis. The [They?] thought that this was the moment to bring over one of our generals. I replied that I was perfectly agreeable to anything Dr. Salazar desired. If he, the Foreign Minister, wished I was ready to telegraph that a general proceed immediately to Lisbon. Personally, however, I thought suggestion was premature. I was running the negotiations here; we had established an atmosphere of mutual confidence but, so far, we had not reached an agreement in principle. I thought that we were not yet ready for small details. The Foreign Minister asked what I proposed. I suggested that it would be valuable indeed if he, Dr. Salazar and I, with ample time at our disposition, could sit down around a table and talk things out. The Foreign Minister replied that he thought idea was excellent. He would communicate with Dr. Salazar in that sense tomorrow. He feared very much that interview would not be feasible until after Wednesday, October 29. There were American naval vessels here, the Portuguese military celebrations and the Canadian Minister of Commerce. Just as soon after Wednesday as possible interview would be arranged.
During the course of conversation I talked about psychological misinterpretation and informed him re nomenclature Lagens that name was being changed to “Azores Air Transport Station”.1 He seemed very pleased.
- The Air Force had taken action earlier to designate Lagens as the “Azores Command” (853B.7962/10–1747).↩