832.51/4–2246
Memorandum by the Acting Chief of the Division of Brazilian Affairs ( Braddock ) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs ( Clayton )
Garcia4 of the Brazilian Embassy told me on April 18 that the Brazilian Government was deeply concerned over the apparent difficulty in getting financial assistance here for carrying out Brazil’s new five-year economic program. With respect to the suggestions made by Mr. Clayton in his conversation with the Brazilian Minister of Transportation, Dr. Macedo Soares, on April 15, namely that Brazil apply to the Export-Import Bank for a credit sufficient to finance its purchases in the United States up to the end of 1946 and thereafter seek a loan from the International Bank, Mr. Garcia said that the Brazilians feared (1) that the credit they could get from the Export-Import Bank might not be sufficient to carry the plan up until the time when further financing could be arranged through the International Bank, and (2) that indications to date were that countries seeking loans from the International Bank for reconstruction purposes would probably receive preferential treatment over other countries such as Brazil which were in need of loans for development purposes. He said there was also a fear that the possibility of Brazil’s getting assistance from the International Bank would be further diminished because of the fact that Brazil proposed to spend the entire amount of her loan in the United States (which while agreeable to this Government might be less agreeable to the Bank Directors representing other countries). Apart from the anticipated difficulty of getting a loan from the International [Page 490] Bank, I gathered that Brazil otherwise had no objection to having recourse to the International Bank instead of to the United States Government.
The Brazilian Government feels that its proved friendship and long record of close cooperation with the United States give it a just claim to our most favorable consideration in the assistance that it is requesting, and that it is to the direct interest of the United States to help make Brazil a strong and effective part of the American community for any eventualities that might arise.
- Celso Raul Garcia, Second Secretary of the Brazilian Embassy.↩