800.8830 Brazil/87: Telegram
The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:27 p.m.]
4108. Department’s 2960, August [October] 6, 6 p.m. Last June (Department’s 1464, June 8, 1 [9] p.m.) the Embassy informed the Brazilian Press Association that every effort was being made to arrange for newsprint shipments at the rate of 3,500 tons a month, “the minimum Brazilian requirement”. The large cut now contemplated would have an unfavorable reaction here. The Bank of Brazil has requested as a rock bottom figure an allocation of 3,000 tons of newsprint for October (my 3666, September 1731). Stocks are practically nonexistent. Shipments to Brazil from the first of the year to August 30 totaled only 13,468 tons an average of but 1,683 tons per month. Shipments for the last 3 months of that period were critically low, viz: 171 tons in June, 341 in July and 951 in August.
Shipments of 3,500 tons per month for at least a few months would be desirable so that reasonable minimum stocks could be built up; and it is recommended that thereafter the figure should not be less than 3,000 tons per month.
All papers have already considerably cut their stocks and reduced their circulation.
- Not printed.↩