832.30/226
The Ambassador in Brazil (Morgan) to
the Secretary of State
[Extract]
Rio de
Janeiro, December 5, 1930.
[Received
December 16.]
No. 3475
Sir: In amplification of Embassy’s telegram No.
161, of December 5, 2 p.m.,25 relative to the return to the United States of the
members of the American Naval Mission to Brazil, I have the honor to
enclose a copy, accompanied by an English translation, of the personal
note of yesterday’s date, received in the afternoon, from the Brazilian
Minister for Foreign Affairs, the contents of which note formed the
basis of Embassy’s telegram No. 161. This was in reply to my personal
note of December 2, a copy of which I have the honor to enclose.
After thanking the American Government for permitting the Government of
Brazil an additional period after the date of the expiration of the
contract in which to determine whether or not the Mission contract
should be renewed and after expressing the Government’s regret at losing
the services of the Mission on account of the necessity of reducing
public expenditure, the note states that all the rights and privileges
which officers of the Mission have enjoyed under the said contract shall
be continued to them until January 31 next, upon which date the
responsibilities and obligations which the Brazilian Government
[Page 461]
has entertained toward them
shall cease to be binding. No statement is made as to whether or not the
Mission shall continue to perform its duties until the 31st of January,
and regarding that matter the Chief of Mission will confer with the
Minister of Marine in conformity with the convenience of the Brazilian
Navy and of the Mission. All officers who are returning to the United
States will leave Brazil before January 31, the date of their departure
depending upon the rapidity with which packers can prepare their
furniture and household goods for shipment.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Respectfully yours,
[Enclosure 1]
The American Ambassador (Morgan) to the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs
(De Mello
Franco)
Rio
de Janeiro, December 2,
1930.
Dear Mr. Minister: Since having had the
pleasure of talking with you on the diplomatic reception day, my
Government has informed me that it will be agreeable if the date
upon which the connection of the American Naval Mission with the
Government of Brazil shall cease shall be fixed for the last day of
January, 1931. That is the date which I suggested to you and which
you accepted unofficially.
If Your Excellency’s Government agrees to that date, may we consider
that it shall be the one upon which the work of the Mission shall
terminate and the pay shall cease, which the Mission receives from
the Brazilian Government.
In regard to other expenses relative to the Mission which Your
Excellency’s Government will presumably desire to assume, they are
covered by Article IV, Sections 4 and 6, of the late naval contract.
Although that contract ceased to be operative on November 6 last, it
would appear to be proper that the provisions of those sections
shall continue to operate inasmuch as they relate to traveling
expenses of the Mission to the United States and to the return there
of their families, personal effects and household goods. I enclose a
copy of the text of Article 4, which includes the two sections in
question in case Your Excellency has not a copy at hand.
As the termination of the contract of the American Naval Mission with
Your Excellency’s Government has been conducted through a
“gentleman’s agreement” and not by the interchange of diplomatic
notes, I would suggest that Your Excellency should write me
personally in the same manner in which I am writing you, expressing
your concurrence with the views which this letter contains, or
suggesting such modifications therein as Your Government may desire
to propose for submission to my own Government.
[Page 462]
[Enclosure
2—Translation]
The Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs
(De Mello
Franco) to the American
Ambassador (Morgan)
Rio
de Janeiro, December 4,
1930.
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: In reference to the
correspondence exchanged between Your Excellency and the Chief of my
Cabinet on November 5 last, I have the honor to renew to you and
through your intermedium to the American Government, the thanks both
of the Brazilian Government and of myself for the attentive manner
with which the American Embassy and the State Department met the
wishes of the Provisional Government in establishing a temporary modus vivendi between our respective
Governments until we were able to examine the question of the
renewal of the contract of the American Naval Mission, which
terminated on November 6th last.
Confirming what I declared verbally to Your Excellency, and in answer
to your letter of the 2nd instant, it is my duty to inform you that
the Provisional Government, much to its regret, is unable to renew
the said contract to continue to utilize the services which, since
1922, the brilliant and competent American Naval Mission has so
efficiently rendered to our War Marine.
The present financial condition of Brazil constitutes the essential
and prime preoccupation of the Provisional Government, which, in
order to regulate the same, and to meet its obligations abroad, has
adopted the strictest program of a reduction of expenses which can
be followed without disorganizing the public services.
For this purpose, it has carefully examined the budgets inherited
from the former Government and has suppressed all expenses which may
be postponed.
It is my duty to add that, in accordance with the statement which I
had the honor to make verbally to Your Excellency, the Provisional
Government guarantees to the Naval Mission the rights which are
contained in the contract of November 6th, 1922, until the 31st of
January next, upon which date all the responsibilities and
obligations which the Brazilian Government assumed under the terms
of that instrument, shall end.
I believe that these terms are fully in accordance with those which
Your Excellency and I agreed upon during our last conversation and
with the contents of the letter I am now answering.
I avail myself [etc.]
