832.5018/7: Telegram
The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 1—3 a.m.]
3333. For Collado.11 Department’s 2424, August 24, midnight.12 Messrs. McClintock13 and LeCron14 with Mr. Keeler, Agricultural Attaché, have worked out with the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Apolonio Salles, a proposed agreement for the stimulation of production of foodstuffs in Brazil, especially in the Amazon area, and north and northeastern Brazil, including Bahia, where war and transport difficulties have created deficiencies in foodstuffs.
A draft agreement was approved by President Vargas and Cabinet at meeting Saturday, August 29, and is to be prepared for final signature at Foreign Office September 3. Signatories would be myself, Oswaldo Aranha, Apolonio Salles, and Nelson Rockefeller.15
The agreement provides for the establishment of a Brazilian-American food production commission to consist of two members, one a Brazilian representing the Minister of Agriculture and the other the American chief food production specialist to be nominated by the Coordinator’s Office, to carry out a program to be drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture with the collaboration of the American specialists.
The Brazilian Government will make available during 1942 a special appropriation of 5,000 contos, equivalent to $250,000; in 1943, it will make available an equal sum. In addition, it will direct toward the purposes of this program the expenditure of approximately 11,500 contos in 1942 and 11,500 contos in 1943, from the regular budgets of the Ministry of Agriculture. Total Brazilian Government funds to be expended for the purposes of the program over 2-year period will thus total approximately $1,400,000.
The Coordinator’s Office will provide food production specialists as needed, and will contribute $1,000,000 in 1942, of which $500,000 is to be deposited shortly after the signing of the agreement, and $500,000 to be made available on deposit of the initial contribution of 500,000 contos by the Brazilian Government. The second contribution of $1,000,000 by the Coordinator will be made during the first half of September 1943.
[Page 689]The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture will make available for the carrying out of the program all equipment, buildings and land of the Division of Vegetable Production Development of the Ministry, as well as the technical collaboration of all other necessary agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture. These include such agencies as the Instituto Agronomico do Norte in Belém and assures cooperation with Camargo16 as well as other agricultural institutions whether federal or state.
Please request Lockwood, Coordinator’s Office,17 to instruct Garst18 to proceed to Rio de Janeiro to arrive not later than September 12. Arrangements are being made for Garst, LeCron and Keeler to accompany the Minister of Agriculture to northeastern states, and Amazon Basin, leaving Rio de Janeiro around September 16.
As we desire to sign the agreement in Rio de Janeiro on September 3, immediate confirmation authorizing me to sign is requested.19
- Emilio G. Collado, Executive Secretary of the Board of Economic Operations, Department of State.↩
- Not printed.↩
- John C. McClintock, Assistant Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.↩
- James D. LeCron, Director of the Food Supply Division of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.↩
- Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.↩
- Felisberto Camargo, Director of the Instituto Agronomico do Norte.↩
- John E. Lockwood, General Counsel of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs.↩
- Jonathan Garst, field representative of the Coordinator’s Office.↩
- Authorization was given in Department’s telegram No. 2519, September 1, 1942.↩