834.7962/62: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Paraguay ( Frost )
475. The War Department informs that present plans call for grading and seeding the area near the intersection of the runways of the Asunción airport, but that it is not proposed to construct a paved or graded runway east and west. The War Department points out (1) that prevailing winds would not permit the use of the east-west runway more than fifteen percent of the time at most; (2) that runway arrangements as now planned will be entirely adequate for any use that can reasonably be foreseen; (3) that improvement of an east-west runway would add little, if any, practical use value to this airport; and (4) that such an additional expenditure would not be considered on a field in this country under corresponding conditions.
The Department is informed that the present plans call for using all of the land as originally laid out, including that part over which the difficulties arose. Thus the only difference between what is now provided for and what you request in your 585, October 28, 11 a.m. [Page 687] and your 626, November 22, 6 p.m.32 appears to relate only to the type of surfacing. Since the use of the land and not the nature of the runway surface was presumably the issue involved in your discussions with President Morinigo, the Department feels that the present plans should be entirely satisfactory to the Paraguayan authorities, especially since they appear to meet in every respect the conditions of any undertaking on record in either the War or State Departments.
- Latter not printed.↩