812.5018/49
The Ambassador in Mexico (Messersmith) to President Roosevelt
Dear Mr. President: During the last two months or six weeks, the President of Mexico and high officials of the Mexican Government have been speaking to me about the serious situation which has developed already in Mexico with respect to corn.
[Page 434]Corn, as you know, is the staple food of the great mass of the twenty millions of Mexicans. Ordinarily, Mexico is self-sufficient with respect to corn and it is the principal crop of the country. There have been corn shortages in the past due to droughts or bad crops, but in that case, it was always easily possible to import corn from us to make up the deficit.
As a result of the programs of various agencies of our Government interested in the procurement of strategic agricultural products, in this case particularly oil-bearing seeds, we have entered into a number of agreements with Mexico for the production of such oil-bearing seeds. As a result, the farmers in the lowlands, which, as you know are the more tropical areas in Mexico, and where they can raise three crops of corn in a year on one piece of ground, have already turned a good part of their corn land into oil-bearing seed crops. They do this because the returns are much better from such oil-bearing seeds than from corn. The result is that there is already a serious shortage of corn.
President Avila Camacho has stressed this situation to me, with its consequent economic and political repercussions if the great mass of the Mexican people are not able to get corn, which is their staple food, or if they have to pay too high a price for it. It means economic and political disorder in this country if this corn shortage cannot be met. Something will have to be done about it, and although our people at home have been giving attention to this matter as a result of my reports, we have, as you know, a serious situation with respect to corn at home, which is due not so much to actual shortage as to withholding from the market because of dissatisfaction with the ceiling price. The Mexican Government is prepared to pay whatever price may be necessary to get the corn it urgently needs from us and to distribute it to the Mexican people at the present prevailing price in Mexico, making up the difference through a subsidy which the Mexican Government will have to provide.
In view of the fact that I have been unable to give any encouraging information to the President of Mexico about corn from home, and as the situation here is growing more serious every day, the President is sending tomorrow to the United States, Dr. Francisco del Rio Canedo. He will get in touch with the Department upon his arrival and, through the Department of State, with appropriate officials of our Government. Mr. Bonsal, in the State Department, has already been in touch with Justice Byrnes50 on this matter, who sees great difficulties, and these I understand.
The reason that I am writing you about this matter is because the situation is really serious. If Mexico cannot get some corn, it will [Page 435] have serious repercussions in the economic and political life of this country where, fortunately, there is more order than has prevailed here for many years in the past. The whole program of the Mexican Government will be endangered and its stability will be endangered if corn cannot be got to meet the needs of the great mass of the Mexican people.
The total amount involved to meet the deficit here is not large. Mexico’s program of production of strategic materials in which we are so much interested for war purposes, is going to be seriously endangered if this primary food problem which is confined to corn, cannot be met.
I should appreciate very much your bringing this matter to the attention of Justice Byrnes and I am sure that, through his collaboration and that of the high officers of our Government who can be helpful in this matter, a solution can be found. The problem is both an emergency and a long-range one. There is immediate necessity for corn from our country for Mexico, as it cannot be got from anywhere else in time to meet the situation. It may be that in addition to this immediate situation, Justice Byrnes and others will have to give consideration to a longer-range problem for at least a year, which affects both Mexico and ourselves.
You may be sure that I would not bring this matter to your attention if it were not a matter of primary importance and I have the deep conviction that it is just as important in some ways for us as it is for the Mexicans that the economic and political order now so happily prevailing in Mexico should be maintained. You know what can happen when people get hungry, and you know that such things can happen more easily in Mexico than in some other places.
I have written a very long letter to Mr. Bonsai,51 in the Department of State, in which I am setting forth some of the major details involved, and I am sending a copy of that letter to Secretary Hull; I am also asking Mr. Bonsai to make a copy available to Justice Byrnes immediately.
Regretting the necessity of intruding this matter on your attention, and again assuring you that I would not do so if it were not extremely important so far as our whole relationships with Mexico and the maintenance of the situation here are concerned, believe me, with every good wish,
Always cordially and faithfully yours,