710. Consultation 4/4–146: Telegram
The Chargé in Brazil (Daniels) to the
Secretary of State
restricted
u.s. urgent
Rio de
Janeiro, April 1, 1946—8
p.m.
[Received April 2—12:49 a.m.]
609. Memorandum dated April 1 handed me late this afternoon by Foreign
Minister in reply to our memoranda on Argentine situation. Full text in
translation follows:
- “1. By memorandum of March 11th last,24 the Government of the United States of
America manifested the desire to know the opinion of the
Brazilian Government on the American memorandum delivered to
the Brazilian Embassy in Washington on February 11th
last,25 and on the possibility of concluding a
pact of mutual assistance with an Argentine Government
controlled by elements mentioned in the ‘Blue Book’.
- “2. The Brazilian Government has studied with most careful
attention all the declarations of the ‘Blue Book’ and is
sincerely convinced of the just importance which the
American Government attributes because of their political
significance, to the documents published. Likewise Brazil,
which participated in the war and was for so many years
under the menace of a Nazi-Fascist victory, shares the same
preoccupation which determined in this case the attitude of
the Department of State. The Brazilian Government, however,
cannot avoid the thought that with the consummation of the
military victory of the United Nations against the
totalitarian Axis the revelations of the aforesaid
report—all concerning activities carried on by the enemy or
by other governments of an attitude then undefined—lose in
part their frightening character, and it does not appear to
it that they require of the American nations a different,
more accentuated course of action beyond a constant yet
prudent vigilance. The Brazilian Government therefore is not
inclined to believe that Nazi-Fascist doctrines crushed at
their centers of irradiation can encounter in the Western
Hemisphere a propitious climate for new and dangerous
adventures, above all since the United States hold the
secret of the manufacture of the most deadly weapon of war
until today known. At the same time the Brazilian Government
is sincerely convinced that if in spite of the painful
experience which humanity has just undergone the American
Continent should find itself once more threatened the
nations of the hemisphere would find in the provisions of
the charter of San Francisco, especially in Chapter 7, the
formula necessary for the preservation of their peace and
their security.
- “3. With reference to the second question of the American
memorandum the Brazilian Government reaffirms its desire
that there be signed as soon as possible in the present
circumstances a pact of mutual assistance between the
nations of the hemisphere. Evidently the aforesaid
instrument will have effective value in the task of the
consolidation of peace only if it is signed by all of the
American nations as an expression of continental unity which
was always the idea of all of the
[Page 9]
advocates of Pan-Americanism simply as a result of the very
designation of the system.
- “Therefore to exclude any of the American Republics from
participation in that act, decisive for the destiny of the
Americas, would have the effect of nullifying in great part
its political and military significance. The Brazilian
Government, which the United States has always found at its
side in so many decades of uninterrupted friendship, would
not desire then to contribute to the exclusion of the
Argentine Republic from the celebration and signature of the
pact.
- “4. The Brazilian Government does not feel at liberty to
enter into an analysis of the elements which are going to
comprise the new Argentine Government, since publicly all
the parties which participated in the last election, the
final results of which are not yet definitely known, proudly
declared that the public pronouncement was free and clean.
With the government which may emerge from the electoral
count the Brazilian Government will continue therefore the
usual diplomatic relations without this implying the least
disagreement with the Government of the United States of
America or weakening to the slightest degree the political
solidarity of Brazil with the great nation, of which it was
an ally in the war and at whose side it desires to cooperate
in the task of reconstructing the world. The invariable
dedication of the Brazilian Government to the cause of
continental unity leads it to assure the American Government
that it is disposed to exert all its efforts in the sense of
finding a formula capable of conciliating the superior
interests of hemispheric defense and best adapted to the
support of continental concord and solidarity.”
Foreign Minister said text of memorandum would be released to Rio de
Janeiro press Thursday afternoon, April 4, for afternoon papers. He
requested that no release of memorandum be made in Washington prior to
that time.
