Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The American Republics, Volume VI

800.8820/1353: Airgram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru (Norweb)

Washington, September 18, 1943—6 p.m.

A–1014. Your A–1316, September 4, 1943.¹⁶ The Department has communicated again with the War Shipping Administration concerning the allocation of shipping space for the movement of wheat to Peru from Australia, Argentina or any other source. That agency has reiterated its inability to allocate such space. Without going into details about the routing of vessels from the South and Southwest Pacific, the War Shipping Administration has again informed the Department that diversion of vessels to the West Coast of South America cannot be done at the present time without an appreciable loss of ship time at a period when it can be least afforded because of overall requirements in the Pacific.

With respect to the requisitioning by British and Australian authorities of two Norwegian vessels scheduled to move under charter over 15,000 tons of wheat from Australia, information possessed by the War Shipping Administration indicates that these Norwegian vessels already had been chartered by the Australian Government and presumably have been diverted from the Peruvian trade because of more urgent Australian requirements in other areas.

The War Shipping Administration has also informed the Department that it has neither been advised of the taking off of the Peruvian-American run of the Ucayali and the Perene nor of the contents of the correspondence between the Office of Economic Warfare in Washington and its representative in Peru concerning the same subject.

The War Shipping Administration has pointed out to the Department that the Peruvian merchant marine fleet engaged in foreign trade consists of seven vessels, namely: Tumbes, Apurimac, Rimac, Perene, Ucayali, Maranon, Mantaro and Urubamba. After making allowances for the routing of a vessel to Chile for the hauling of nitrate and the need for a Peruvian vessel in the Iquitos trade, there appears to be an appreciable amount of Peruvian tonnage available for the run to the Plate to load wheat.

[Here follows a statistical discussion of wheat imports into Peru.]

Hull

16. Not printed; it reported that two Norwegian vessels, scheduled to bring to Peru some 15,000 tons of wheat, had been requisitioned by British and Australian authorities.