Office of the Historian

832.852/71: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Gaffery)

Washington, September 11, 1943—8 p.m.

3453. Your 4257, September 6, 2 p.m.66 War Shipping Administration, in view of increasing number of requests it is receiving from Brazil to move coastwise cargo in ocean-going vessels which have other duties to perform, is willing to turn back the vessels which it chartered under the agreement of September 30.67 They have informally suggested to Azevedo68 that these vessels would be returned if the Brazilian Maritime Commission would make a request covering the following points:

(1)
Adequate priority be given the movement in coastwise trade of Rubber Development Corporation, Army, Navy, and other United States Government agencies’ cargo.
(2)
That export cargoes be centralized at major Brazilian ports.
(3)
That the Brazilians assume a definite responsibility for carriage of some portion of the 98,000 ton southbound target. This figure would be worked out after looking at their available ships and making some estimate of their prospective turnaround.

It appears quite probable that these vessels would be more suited to coastwise trade than they are to the United States trade.

For your information, the use of Brazilian crews at their low wage level on ships bareboated to the War Shipping Administration has not proved satisfactory.

Hull
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. See Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. v, p. 743, footnote 29.↩
  3. Renato de Azevedo, Washington representative of Lloyd Brasileiro.↩