832.796/822: Telegram
The Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 13—7:51 a.m.]
832. For the Acting Secretary. My 829, March 12, 7 p.m. Aranha tells me that President Vargas himself was behind the orders given to Standard Oil. Aranha says that on the one hand President Vargas is cooperating and will continue to cooperate with us in the war business and has only today put out decrees confiscating Axis properties, et cetera et cetera; on the other hand he is convinced that the Washington authorities are all wrong in their attitude to Condor which he considers, especially since the dismissal of so many German employees, a purely Brazilian company and “he is not” says Aranha “disposed to be dictated to by Washington on this”.
However, Aranha says he has agreed with the Condor management that they are willing to take on Hardin at once as adviser and follow his advice in the reorganization of the company; they are willing also to change the name but they cannot do that for some months in [Page 774] view of contractual obligations involved. The Lufthansa99 debt will be taken care of by today’s decree.
- Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft Berlin, the chief German commercial aviation company.↩