812.61/171
The Ambassador in Mexico (Messersmith) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 2, 1943.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to previous correspondence with the Department concerning the general authority of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to carry through emergency food programs in various of the American republics.
It will be recalled that the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs57 has on several occasions during the last year expressed a desire that the Embassy initiate conversations with the Mexican Government leading towards the inauguration of such a program. The Department is aware that the attitude of this Embassy has consistently been that the existing circumstances in Mexico did not warrant our taking up this matter with the Mexican Government and that there were various reasons of policy why it should not be taken up with the Mexican Government at the time. …
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The Department will note that my attitude towards the eventual presentation of this matter to the Mexican authorities has changed and that under certain conditions I am willing to undertake the negotiation of such an agreement with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The principal reason for this change of attitude of the Embassy is that the derangement in the food problems of Mexico brought about by the diversion of corn lands to oil seeds and other more profitable crops has resulted in a very serious corn shortage. The methods [Page 440] of producing corn in Mexico which is the basic food in the country, in spite of the efforts of the Department of Agriculture to bring about an improvement, have not been successful in bringing about any reasonable production of corn per acre. There are many factors which enter into this problem. It is increasingly necessary, in view of the fact that corn is the basic food of the Mexican people, that something be done to improve the production of corn per acre. The same applies to several other of the basic crops of the country. If, through a collaborative program such as the Coordinator has in mind, we can be of real assistance to Mexico in improving the per acre production of her basic crops, it will be a great service to the country. The degree to which we are able to do this is not yet clear to me but I have changed my point of view in the sense that I believe that the Mexican authorities will be somewhat more receptive towards an approach of this kind.
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Respectfully yours,
- Nelson Rockefeller.↩