832.61333/920: Telegram
The Chargé in Brazil (Simmons) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:45 p.m.]
271. The coffee meeting referred to in the Embassy’s 234 of January 20, 8 p.m., took place today at which Minister of Finance, Guedes and others were present. Although Guedes again opposed cancellation of the coffee agreement, the Minister of Finance agreed in principle to terminate it. He said he would discuss the matter with Aranha85 early next week. I repeated that we desired to terminate the agreement in its entirety simultaneously with the ship deal.
The Minister again expressed himself as strongly opposed to any movement on the part of Brazil to increase coffee prices in the United States. He said he would facilitate exportation of coffee to the United States by increasing entries at port of Santos. Guedes remarked that entries at Santos now exceed 40,000 bags a day and that approximately 800,000 bags of coffee will be shipped from Santos to the United States in January and approximately one million bags for all of Brazil. The Minister is confident that the increase in entries and shipments (he again instructed Guedes to maintain entries at not less than 40,000 bags daily) would obviate any need for coffee rationing in the United States. The Minister added: “This must be avoided at all costs”.
I told Souza Costa that we expect to conclude the ship negotiations next week; therefore, it is important that the Department expedite reply to the Embassy’s 195 of January 18, 5 p.m.86