823.24/1148
The Chargé in Peru (Butler) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the arrival at Callao on February 12 of the two submarine chasers recently acquired by Peru in virtue of the Lend-Lease agreement1 was attended by a minimum of publicity which, either through oversight or design, omitted all reference to the nature of their acquisition from the United States Government. The very brief items that appeared in the local press (of which the enclosed clipping is a sample) uniformly described the new naval units as having been “acquired by the Government in the United States”.
It should be mentioned, however, that the arrival in September 1943 of the first two submarine chasers obtained under Lend-Lease resulted in a fair amount of favorable publicity which gave full credit to the United States for making them available. (See Embassy’s despatch no. 7772 of September 3, 1943.2)
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed; for bracketed note concerning the agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, p. 673.↩
- Not printed.↩