852.00/232a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery)
111. You will have noted in the daily press bulletin of September 16, 1938, a release regarding the distribution of flour to refugee women and children in Spain which is being undertaken by the American Red Cross.47 The wheat, from which this flour is being milled, has been made available by the Surplus Commodities Corporation. Further reports received from Spain indicate that there is an almost complete shortage of coffee.
Please bring discreetly and tactfully to the attention of the appropriate Brazilian authorities that, actuated entirely by humanitarian motives, this Government is desirous of offering the suggestion that the Brazilian Government might wish to consider the donation to Spanish refugees (who would certainly not be in a position to buy any) of a certain quantity of surplus coffee from the amount which is periodically destroyed.
It is recognized that the problem of roasting, transportation and distribution still remains, but if the idea commends itself to the Brazilian Government in principle, and the Brazilian Government desires further advice as to the most favorable means of assuring its reaching the refugees, the Department would be only too happy to put [Page 372] the Brazilian Embassy here in touch with the American National Red Cross.
- Department of State, Press Releases, September 17, 1938, p. 190.↩