611.3531/581
The Ambassador in Argentina (Weddell) to the Secretary of
State
No. 1869
Buenos
Aires, January 11, 1938.
Sir: I have the honor to invite the
Department’s attention to my strictly confidential despatch No. 1851 of
December 24, 1937,5 on the second page of which I reported the
visits to the Embassy of Mr. Alonso Irigoyen, the Financial Attaché of
the Argentine Embassy in Washington, and in that connection to enclose a
memorandum of a conversation between Mr. Irigoyen and the First
Secretary of this Embassy.
Respectfully yours,
For the Ambassador:
Orme
Wilson
First Secretary of
Embassy
[Enclosure]
Memorandum of Conversation, by the First
Secretary of Embassy in Argentina (Wilson)
Mr. Irigoyen said that the Inter-Ministerial Commission, formed by
the Argentine Government to consider the possibilities of
negotiating a trade agreement with the United States, was giving
unremitting attention to fundamental matters relating to this
subject adding, in answer to an inquiry, that these fundamental
matters were in effect connected with the question of exchange. He
appeared to intimate in this connection that the Commission was
weighing the problem as to whether widespread concessions in
exchange could be offset by benefits to be derived from a trade
agreement, stating at this point that the exchange question was an
extremely difficult one to solve.
Mr. Irigoyen went on to say that the approaching change of
administration in Argentina is tending to delay somewhat the
activities of the Commission as some of its members realize that
their term of office will terminate at the end of the Justo
administration and that there was a consequent tendency to postpone
matters. In answer to a question, however, as to whether Dr. Ortiz
was not taking a lively interest in the possibility of concluding a
trade agreement, Mr. Irigoyen answered in the affirmative and added
that the President-elect was keeping in touch with the discussions
of the Commission. Mr. Wilson pointed out that the present moment
seemed favorable to Argentina in so far as negotiations for a trade
agreement were concerned, owing to the fact that conversations on
the same subject were about to commence between representatives of
the British and American Governments. He seemed to realize this.
The Commission is compiling, according to Mr. Irigoyen, a formidable
list of demands for tariff concessions from the United States which
he will take with him when he leaves Buenos Aires by airplane on
Tuesday next, January 18.
[Buenos Aires,] January 10,
1938.
