D40 Letter repealing the reading censorship rules and allowing wider circulation of the texts

UMMOAELEWE

No. of copies 1

Language Spanish

 

To Mr F. Sesma Manzano

MADRID

 

CONFIDENTIAL

(You may share its reading with Mr Garrido Buendía (Dionisio), who has similar instructions)

 

Sir:

 

Following our arrival in Spanish territory during the month of February 1966. We found ourselves obliged to dictate certain instructions to you in view of the slant that the news spread by certain organs of public expression might take.

 

A consultation recently made to our superior YU 1 daughter of AIM 368, begging her to soften the rigidity of those rules and even to suppress them altogether, since their contraventions had proved harmless after a few months had passed, resulted in an authorisation to inform you that part of them were repealed.

 

Our superior in Spain: DEII 98 SON of DEII 97 continues to consider that maintaining the remaining ones is ineffective and pointless, openly disagreeing with the judgement of our young superior, which we attribute to other presumably more important matters than that trifling question of form having prevented her from paying too much attention to that request.

 

But the blind submission we owe him obliges us to accept his criterion, which at least in this case is evidently capricious. We therefore regret to tell you that, if you wish to continue our contacts, you must go on respecting the remaining rules, which, on the other hand, are the easiest to comply with.

 

If you still have a note that was sent to you. With the Title EARTH DELEGATION AUSTRALIA, we inform you that you may disregard the points:

 

FIRST (Concerning statements to reporters)

 

SECOND (On statements to members of Radio and Television Broadcasting Stations).

 

There remains in force, in particular, point 4, which establishes the express prohibition of visiting or making statements before Witnesses of The landings or journalists who publicly expressed their doubts IN THOSE DAYS that followed the landing. (thwarting our original objective that Spanish technical circles should take an interest in the matter ).

 

The journalists on the staff of the Publication “POR QUÉ” distorted the facts, covertly ridiculing them by distorting their statements. It is our wish that the abstention with regard to them should continue.

 

The journalists of the newspaper INFORMACIONES at first showed themselves in sympathy with the event. But in the last report they expressed certain doubts without arguments to support them. Although in this case there was no manifest bad faith but an honest attempt to express a respectable point of view, we prefer for now to maintain the same veto. We believe it will be lifted shortly for this Madrid evening newspaper.