816.51/1153: Airgram
The Ambassador in El Salvador ( Thurston ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 13—4 p.m.]
A–142. Embassy’s telegram No. 131, May 7,4 p.m. [a.m.]12 Señor R. Arturo Bustamante, Subsecretary of Finance, called at the Embassy this morning to inform me of the objectives of the Economic Mission to the United States, of which he is the head.13
With respect to the Mission’s activities in Mexico, Sr. Bustamante stated that they will consist of an effort to obtain petroleum products there (in connection with which he said Guatemala is now receiving Mexican gasoline which is not being deducted from its American quota),14 and also the removal of certain restrictions now imposed by the Mexican authorities upon the transit of Salvadoran coffee overland to the United States.
In Washington the secondary objective of the Mission will be to obtain for El Salvador a larger quota of American gasoline and petroleum products required in part to meet the demands of the mining industry here.
The major purpose of the visit to Washington, however, is to take up with the American authorities the question of the Salvadoran external debt. Sr. Bustamante stated that he hopes to receive the Department’s support of a proposal for revision of the Salvadoran debt. Although he did not explicitly so state, I received the impression that the proposal [Page 313] he will present will follow very closely the outline of the memorandum enclosed with the Embassy’s confidential despatch No. 324 of April 2815
- Not printed.↩
- Under date of May 7, 1943, the Government of El Salvador appointed R. A. Bustamante, Victor C. Barriere (Director General of the Budget), and Francisco Alfredo Mejía (Member of the Committee for Economic Coordination of El Salvador) delegates constituting an Economic Mission to the United States.↩
- For mention of Mexico’s petroleum exports to Central America, see letter of August 31 from the Ambassador in Mexico to the Assistant Chief of the Division of the American Republics and instruction No. 4606, October 23, to the Ambassador in Mexico, pp. 463 and 465, respectively.↩
- Not printed; for correspondence on the Mission’s negotiations concerning settlement of the Salvadoran external debt, see pp. 329 ff.↩