033.4111 Eden, Anthony/34
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Brazilian Ambassador62 called to see me this afternoon at his request. The Ambassador gave me to read a personal letter which he had received from President Vargas in which the latter stated that the Brazilian Government believed that this Government must have entered into at least some tentative agreements with the British Government during the course of Mr. Eden’s visit to Washington and, if that were the case, that the Brazilian Government would like to have as much information as possible with regard to such agreements.
I told the Ambassador that, as I had previously said to him, no agreements of any character were entered into while Mr. Eden was here. I said the visit had been solely for the purpose of exchanging views with regard to present and future problems with which the British and United States Governments would be confronted, and for the purpose of discussing the most practical solutions which could be found for these problems. I said that, as the President had publicly announced, it had been gratifying to discover that the British Government and our own were very much in accord as to policies and solutions. I said that I wished he would make it clear to President Vargas that there was no Government to which the United States Government would more quickly turn for advice and consultation, in the event that it was prepared to enter into agreements of the kind suggested, than to the [Page 48] Brazilian Government, and that the President of Brazil could further rest assured that it was the desire and purpose of this Government to have the fullest kind of consultation with all of the other nineteen American Republics which were siding with the United Nations in the present war with regard to every aspect of the post-war policy just as soon as this Government found itself in a position to do so with any precision.
The Ambassador said he fully understood the situation and would inform his President in that sense.
- Carlos Martins.↩