741.53/152a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil ( Caffery )
3771. Personal for the Ambassador. Please seek an immediate opportunity of calling on President Vargas72 and of giving him orally the following personal and highly confidential message from the President:
“I believe that I need not emphasize to you the strategic importance of the Azores in relation to the anti-submarine campaign. You and I discussed this situation last January.73 An arrangement has now [Page 549] been concluded between the British and Portuguese Governments which will enable the British to conduct air and sea activities against German submarines from the Azores. This arrangement will become effective in the very near future, probably on Friday, October 8. The agreement is based upon the six-century-old Treaty of Alliance between Portugal and Great Britain, in accordance with which these two countries pledged themselves to come to the aid of each other on request. Naturally you and I would have preferred an arrangement under which Portugal came to the assistance of the United Nations as a whole in their struggle against the Axis. However the bi-lateral agreement with Great Britain was apparently the only formula acceptable to Dr. Salazar. I am confident that the measures which the British will now be able to take will be of the very greatest assistance in driving submarines from the middle and south Atlantic.”
Please inform the Department urgently of Vargas’ reaction to the above.
Please also take every means of stressing the necessity for secrecy in connection with this operation until we hear from the British that the [matter?] may be made public without jeopardizing the safety of those involved.
- Getulio Vargas, President of Brazil.↩
- President Roosevelt and President Vargas conferred at Natal, Brazil, on January 29, 1943. In the course of the meeting, President Roosevelt proposed to President Vargas that Brazil suggest to the Portuguese Government that Brazilian troops be sent to the Azores and Madeira to relieve Portuguese troops there, and President Vargas expressed a willingness to take up the matter with Salazar, subject to certain conditions. (See vol. v , section under Brazil entitled “Conference between President Roosevelt and President Vargas …”)↩