840.51 Frozen Credits 35/293: Telegram

The Ambassador in Argentina (Armour) to the Secretary of State

222. Discussions will be undertaken within next day or two with, Minister of Finance32 and other appropriate officials with respect to paragraph 6 of your 149, January 25, 12 p.m.

I do not believe it wise to start these discussions on a haggling or bargaining basis, and for this reason I would appreciate being authorized to inform the Minister, at time thought appropriate by me, that Banco de la Provincia and Banco de la Nación were being removed from list of special blocked nationals. This may well be desirable during the first conversations if Government seems disposed to take effective steps to implement Rio de Janeiro and Washington resolutions.

An all-out effort will be made by us to secure implementation of those resolutions in such manner as effectively to damage German commercial and industrial organization which has been and continues to be one of principal sources for financing subversive activities in South America. This objective may or may not be attained. However I feel that the good will resulting from the unfreezing of the two banks would be definitely of more value in our negotiations than using these banks as a bargaining weapon. The stakes we are playing for now are too great to adopt the latter alternative.

For the Department only:

I am afraid that Treasury Department will view this suggestion with disfavor. If Department agrees with me that the relatively unimportant matter of these two banks should not be allowed to be an obstacle to our attempts to secure effective implementation, the Secretary may consider it advisable personally to intervene.

An urgent decision is requested.

Armour
  1. César Ameghino.