832.24/263: Telegram

The Chargé in Brazil (Burdett) to the Secretary of State

607. The British Ambassador told me today that he has for some weeks consistently recommended that means be found to permit the Siqueira Campos to pass the blockade. He has done all he could and can now merely furnish information. He thought that since a cabinet decision had been reached it will be difficult to let the ship go.

He further said the Brazilians did not put their cards on the table until the ship was seized and that they have only now disclosed the secret provisions of the 1938 arms contract between Brazil and Germany.64a

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The Secretary for Foreign Affairs said today that the figure of 335,000 pounds (sterling) added to his note of today to the British Government is a mistake and should read 732,000 pounds. Please see the penultimate paragraph of my telegram No. 606, November 25, midnight.

Aranha will today furnish the Embassy for the Under Secretary a long statement including the provisions of the arms contract. It will be telegraphed tonight.

Burdett
  1. Presumably the contract between the Brazilian Government and the firm Friedrich Krupp A. G., signed by Krupp on March 26, 1938, and by the Brazilian Government on March 28, 1938. (Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, series D, vol. x, p. 177, footnote 6.)