711.3227/3–244
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Caffery)
Sir: Reference is made to the Department’s telegram 416 of February 7, 194435 concerning the proposed military aviation agreement.
[Page 557]There is now enclosed a draft agreement35a approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department.
You are accordingly requested, as directed by the President, to give high priority to negotiation of the agreement with Brazil.
This proposed agreement with Brazil is an integral part, as you are aware, of an extensive system of postwar security which the Joint Chiefs of Staff are preparing at the President’s direction. The terms of the Brazilian arrangement may therefore set important precedents. You are accordingly requested in the course of your negotiations to clear proposed changes with the Department, which in the President’s directive36 is to receive its military guidance from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The following observations may be useful to you:
- (1)
- At the insistence of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the word “technical” has been omitted from the name of the Commission. If you believe it important to reinstate this word, the Department feels it can gain the acquiescence of the Joint Chiefs;
- (2)
- The detail with which Exhibit I37 (see Article Fifth, paragraph (a) and enclosure) is prepared is left to your discretion and that of Vice Admiral Ingram and Major General Walsh;
- (3)
- The President states that our personnel at the airports after the war would not wear uniforms (Article Fifth (c));
- (4)
- The United States considers the exclusive jurisdiction clause in Article Eleventh a rule of international law. In this war our exclusive jurisdiction has been recognized in foreign territory by every government with which it has been taken up (with the exception of Iran, where an agreement is still pending).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Very truly yours,