President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)63
467. I believe that as a result of our suspension of tanker loadings the Spanish situation is developing satisfactorily and that if both our Governments hold firm we can obtain a complete and permanent [Page 338] Spanish embargo on the export of wolfram to any country. Our information indicates that the Germans are very short of wolfram and that supplies obtained at this time can be directly translated into terms of British and American casualties. We have had indications of a disposition on the part of your Ambassador and ours at Madrid to accept some compromise short of a complete embargo. I do not consider this satisfactory and I see no danger that our joint insistence upon a complete embargo before resuming loading of Spanish tankers will produce any serious reaction in Spain which would adversely affect the Allied position. The establishment of a complete embargo would be entirely within Franco’s announced policy of neutrality and I hope you will send instructions to Hoare to stand firm as we are doing to Hayes. We know that the Portuguese are watching the Spanish situation carefully and our insistence upon the embargo should have a helpful effect in obtaining satisfaction with regard to wolfram from Salazar.64