Oil to Spain: The Answer

In Barcelona last month the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Carlton J. H. Hayes, made a statement that had repercussions (TIME, March 8). Shipments from America, he said, had built up Fascist Spain's oil stocks "considerably higher than the present per capita distribution of the Atlantic seaboard of the U.S." To many this smelled of State Department appeasement--the kind once tendered Japan and Vichy. Sections of the U.S. press viewed with alarm. Some Eastern Congressmen viewed with anger.

Last week Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles set part of the record straight. In the past two years, he said, the U.S. had shipped only 1,942,000 barrels of petroleum products to Spain (normally the 17 Eastern states consume 1,250,000 barrels daily). Further, the U.S. had sent no oil at all since Feb. 19, 1942, has had an arrangement with Britain whereby Spanish vessels could carry limited quantities of South American oil through the British blockade. Said Sumner Welles: "Adequate guarantees have been furnished . . . that none of these petroleum products will leave Spain. . . . The transportation . . . has no relation to petroleum products available to the Eastern seaboard "

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