818.51/969
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations ( Duggan ) to the Under Secretary of State ( Welles )
Mr. Welles: I understand that the Minister of Costa Rica16 has an appointment with you this afternoon at 5:00 o’clock. I believe the purpose of the Minister’s visit is to discuss the following.
About ten days ago, the Minister told me that the President17 had telephoned him and, over a very bad connection, informed him of the need of his Government for funds with which to meet expenses incurred in connection with the expansion of Costa Rica’s army. The Minister gave the impression that what the President wanted was a donation of the necessary funds. I explained to the Minister the difficulties in this and suggested that he write the President for further details.
The Minister now has a letter from the President which refers to the conversations you had in Rio with Dr. Luis Anderson.18 According to this letter, it was agreed that an agricultural expert would be sent to Costa Rica to study, in cooperation with the Costa Rican Government, a plan for intensive production. The letter stated that you had indicated that this Government would be prepared to go up to $3,000,000 to help Costa Rica in this regard. Moreover, in connection with the fiscal situation, which was not defined in the letter, it was stated that at Rio you had stated that this Government would be ready to advance up to $2,000,000 for this purpose.
With regard to the agricultural expert, I talked to Mr. Leslie Wheeler19 while the Minister was still with me. Mr. Wheeler said that he would today instruct the agricultural attaché in Panama20 to proceed to San José to make there a preliminary survey for the purpose of advising with respect to exactly what specialties, experts should be sent. On the basis of his report and recommendation, an agricultural mission would then be immediately dispatched to Costa Rica. [Page 241] This seemed to make sense to the Minister who is advising the President by telegram of the proposed arrangement.
With regard to the fiscal situation, I suggested to the Minister that he request the Minister of Finance to send him a report stating precisely what is needed. On the basis of this report we can decide what to do. Costa Rica has a small Lend-Lease allocation21 which, if necessary, can be increased. I doubt, however, whether it is more armament that Costa Rica needs. I think what the President wants is some free funds. His letter seemed to indicate that what he desired was a loan rather than a grant. The Minister also indicated his acquiescence with this suggestion and said that he would ask immediately for such a report.
- Luis Fernández.↩
- Rafael Calderón Guardia.↩
- Costa Rican delegate to the Third Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the American Republics at Rio de Janeiro in January 1942. For correspondence on this Meeting, see vol. v, pp. 6 ff.↩
- Director of Foreign Agriculture Relations of the Department of Agriculture.↩
- Charles L. Luedtke.↩
- For text of Lend-Lease Agreement between the United States and Costa Rica, see p. 235.↩