611.3331/193
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Duggan) of a Conversation With the Uruguayan Minister (Richling)
The Minister permitted me to read a telegram which he had just received from his Government to the effect that the Minister’s letter dated June 24 transmitting the trade agreement proposal of this Government had arrived in Montevideo on July 5, with the result that there was insufficient time to study the proposal and give a reply by July 7. His Government requested the Minister to ask for an extension of time in order that it might study the proposal carefully.
After consulting Mr. Hawkins, I informed the Minister that the very latest date for a reply would be Wednesday, July 13.
The Minister then discussed at some length exactly what the Department would consider as a satisfactory reply. He said that he thought it would be difficult for his Government to give its final decision with respect to the changes in duty requested on American products entering Uruguay. He said that in replying to the telegram received from his Government he wanted to add as much as possible and he was thinking of including a paragraph to the effect that what this Government wanted was knowledge that the Uruguayan Government was prepared to proceed to negotiate the agreement without important deviation from the bases set forth in the Department’s memorandum. I told the Minister that I thought he had caught what the Department was striving to obtain from the Uruguayan Government, but urged him to impress upon his Government the necessity for being as specific and definite in its reply as [Page 915] possible, because it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to carry on any further negotiations regarding the bases of the agreement after the 13th of July.