File No. 832.461/3
Ambassador Morgan to the Secretary of State
Rio de Janeiro, July 11, 1917.
Sir: On July 5 the Embassy informed the Department by telegram that a further step toward affiliation with the cause of the Allies and of approximation toward the United States had marked the commemoration of Independence Day by the Brazilian Government.
At noon on July 4 the President of the Republic, accompanied by the Minister of Marine and the members of his military and civil household, a party of a dozen persons, visited the U. S. S. Pittsburg, the flagship of Admiral Caperton’s squadron. In the Admiral’s cabin toasts were exchanged between the Admiral and the President, over cups of Brazilian coffee, in the sense of the first enclosure to this despatch.
During the afternoon a contingent of marines and bluejackets, numbering about 2,600, composed of a portion of the crews of the four American, two British and one French cruisers in the harbor, and a considerable body of Brazilian marines and bluejackets, marched through the principal streets in the center of Rio de Janeiro, led by Admiral Francisco de Mattos, Commandant of the Brazilian Division of Dreadnoughts. The parade was reviewed by the President and the diplomatic representatives of the Powers represented in the contingent. The crowds were so great in the Avenida Central that [Page 27] the police were obliged to clear a way. Cheers and hand-clapping greeted the contingent while marching, and flowers were thrown upon them from balconies and windows. Our boys especially received a popular ovation which was as sincere as it was spontaneous. The photographs which accompany this despatch, as a second enclosure, indicate both density of the crowds and the good appearance of the men while marching.1 Subsequent to the parade a numerously attended reception was held at the Embassy which was open to all comers.
On account of the parade, the usual sports and garden party were postponed until July 5, when, with the cooperation of Admiral Caperton’s sailors, the program was carried through successfully. The opinion of the oldest inhabitant is valuable in regard to the observation of national holidays. The testimony from that source is to the effect that Independence Day was never more heartily, more appropriately, or more gratifyingly commemorated than it was in the current year, in Rio de Janeiro.
I have [etc.]
- Not reproduced.↩