Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The American Republics, Volume XI

833.24/4–2346

The Department of State to the Uruguayan Embassy

Washington , August 9, 1946.

Memorandum

Reference is made to the Aide-Mémoire from the Uruguayan Embassy, dated April 23, 1946, outlining the desires of the Uruguayan Government in the matter of acquisition of war materials and munitions in the United States and the use of the balance of payments made by Uruguay in excess of materials received under the terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement,¹¹ which balance was in the neighborhood of $2,000,000 at the time of Lend-Lease termination.

Careful study has been given to the Uruguayan proposals under reference but it has been thought inexpedient to undertake negotiations at this time on any special agreement deriving from the original Lend-Lease proposals, both in the light of the interim arms program made known to the Uruguayan Chargé d’Affaires a.i. ¹² at a meeting with officials of the Department of State on March 13, 1946, and of the more general armaments legislation¹³ presently before the United States Congress. It may be noted here that under the interim arms program referred to, the following equipment was indicated as available for Uruguay:

Military equipment for:	2 Battalions of Infantry
	2 Batteries of Field Artillery
Aircraft:	4 C–47’s
	18 (C–45’s)
	(AT–11’s) depending on
	(AT–7’s) availability
	50 PT–19’s
	15 BT–13’s
	15 AT–6’s

It is understood, furthermore, that the Uruguayan Military Mission has been taking advantage of the Lend-Lease balance existing to make purchases out of surplus property, in accordance with the suggestion in the last pargaraph of the Department of State’s note of December 29, 1945,¹⁴ and that currently the balance in favor of Uruguay still available for such purchases is reported by officials of the Treasury Department as in the neighborhood of $1,770,000 (as of June 26, 1946).

11. Signed January 13, 1942; see bracketed note in Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, p. 703.
12. César Montero de Bustamante.
13. The Inter-American Military Cooperation bill; see House Document No. 548, 79th Cong., 2d sess.
14. Not printed.