812.5018/30: Airgram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Mexico ( Messersmith )
A–2208. The following for your background information in the event the Foreign Office should discuss with you its request for 15,000 tons of corn: On July 22 the Mexican Embassy sent the Department a memorandum46 stating that instructions had been received from Mexico City to take up with the Department the matter of obtaining as a loan of between 15,000 and 20,000 tons of corn to be returned by the Mexican Government within a period of one year. The memorandum stated that the Mexican Government was prepared to make a bank deposit for the appropriate amount concerned.
We explored the matter with Agriculture and, through that Department, the Commodity Credit Corporation. Both of these agencies have informed us that they have no government corn to lend or for sale, and that there is no corn on the free market in this country for the present.
In the event that corn comes on the market we will of course do everything possible to help the Mexican Government procure the corn.
For our information, would you please have Mallory47 explore the situation with respect to the present demand for corn in Mexico and whether the corn which the Mexican Government now wishes to obtain would be used purely for purposes of food supply or for purposes other than food.