Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1938, The American Republics, Volume V

612.003/706

Memorandum by the Adviser on International Economic Affairs ( Feis ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Welles )

[ Washington ,] December 14, 1937.

Mr. Welles: I attach the memorandum handed you yesterday by the Mexican Minister of Finance, together with a rough translation made in this Office.⁴¹ We are making a critical examination of its factual aspects now. The first impression is that the memorandum overstates the amount of existing imports necessary to Mexico to keep its exchange stable, certainly as long as it does not meet any more of its external obligations than it has recently met. The memorandum is in general intended to be a justification of the necessity of reducing imports, by increasing tariffs.

Do you believe it is desirable to give them a memorandum in reply?⁴²

H[erbert] F[eis]

41. Memorandum entitled “Balance of Payments of the Foreign Commerce of Mexico and Increase of the Import Tariff”; not printed.
42. A notation by Sumner Welles on this document reads, “I do not.”