Office of the Historian

852.6363/141: Telegram

The Chargé in France (Armour) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]
Paris, October 25, 1928—6 p.m.
[Received 6:50 p.m.]

329. With reference to the Department’s No. 2900 of September 18.45 The French Government, I have learned, believes that the best chance to obtain more adequate compensation from Spain for the oil companies lies now in recourse to arbitration. Whether France can insist successfully upon arbitration under the existing Franco-Spanish convention is being studied by the French Foreign Office. An affirmative decision at present seems likely. If so, the French Government would naturally welcome support for their position from the Department of State.

[Page 876]

Such a course is favored by the American oil representatives who inform me that American interests would be covered by French arbitration as a result of a minority of French stockholders in Babel and Nervion.46

The foregoing is being mailed to Madrid.

Armour
  1. Same as instruction No. 462 to the Ambassador in Spain, supra.↩
  2. Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey subsidiary.↩