611.3531/555
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Argentine Ambassador called upon me this morning at my request.
I asked the Ambassador if he had had any word since the arrival in Buenos Aires of his Financial Counselor, Mr. Irigoyen, [Page 228] who flew down to Argentina last week taking with him the file of communications from the Department of State with regard to the trade agreement negotiations. The Ambassador said that he had no word as yet, although he expected to speak on the telephone to Mr. Irigoyen tomorrow, December 7. He showed me, however, an air mail letter which he had just received, dated November 30, from the Under Secretary of Agriculture in which letter Señor Brebbia expressed to the Ambassador the opinion that any elimination of exchange discrimination against the United States before the negotiations for a trade agreement had been definitely concluded would be exceedingly difficult in as much as not only was the treaty relationship between Argentina and Great Britain involved, but also every department of the Government would have to be consulted. He further alleged that in these last weeks of the life of the Government of Argentina it was obviously difficult to obtain any decision from the outgoing authorities on a matter of particular importance, especially in the present case, because the President-elect in his campaign addresses had indicated his intention of keeping exchange control intact unless the international trade situation improved to a point where the restrictions could be safely removed without detriment to Argentine interests. The salient point in the letter which the Ambassador showed me, however, was where Señor Brebbia specifically stated that in his judgment the exchange restrictions should be continued so that they might be used as a bargaining point.
The Ambassador said that he would let me know as soon as he had any word from Buenos Aires in this matter and I again reminded him of our hope that President-elect Ortiz might visit Washington before he took office but that the time was now short if he was to leave Buenos Aires in order to visit Washington and return before February 20.