852.00/2692
Memorandum by the Acting Secretary of State
M. Henry, the French Chargé d’Affaires, called me on the telephone at my house shortly after 8:30 A.M. to say that he had just noted in the morning press telegrams from Paris to the effect that the French Government would ask the United States to join with other European nations in a pact of impartiality with regard to the Spanish situation.
M. Henry desired me to know at once that these press reports were incorrect and that the French Government was not going to ask any such action on the part of the United States; in view of the publicity, however, he hesitated to come to see me at the Department and he asked whether I would lunch with him at the Embassy today, saying that he would be grateful for any information which I could properly give him with regard to our position.
At our luncheon conference I read to M. Henry the Department’s circular telegraphic instruction of August 7th to our consular officers in Spain and I also read to him, without mentioning any name, the letter which we had sent to the Glenn L. Martin Company under yesterday’s date.
The Chargé d’Affaires thanked me for this information and said he realized that we had gone just as far as we properly could in the absence of legislation; he said he had explained to his Government fully the position of this Government along the lines contained in our circular instruction,—that our neutrality legislation did not apply in the Spanish case, but that the press, at least, had given the clear indication that it was sympathetic to the step which the French Government had taken in inviting other European countries to observe a position of complete impartiality; he had also cautioned his Government from time to time against taking any action which would seem to ask the United States to commit itself with other European nations and he was confident, therefore, that his Government fully understood our position here and would not take any such step; it was true, he said, that Von Neurath, in a conversation with the French Ambassador in Berlin, had made the remark that the attitude of the United States in this whole matter was one of great importance to Germany and all of the European nations.
Before I left M. Henry reemphasized the fact that he had received no instructions to ask anything from this Government; in inviting me to the Embassy he was merely seeking to obtain whatever information he could as to our attitude and he appreciated the response which I had made to his request.