800.5018/8–1547
Memorandum by Mr. Richard F. O’Toole of the Division of Brazilian Affairs
Yesterday morning I attended a meeting in Mr. Highby’s office (IR) during which he supplied tentative wheat allocation figures for October, on the basis of an exportable surplus of 14 million tons from the US production.
Brazil has been omitted from the October allocations and I asked Mr. Highby the reason for this. He prefaced his reply with a statement that “it is not for punitive reasons” and went on to say that Brazil’s stock position, plus the fact that Canada had recently supplied her with some wheat, made it appear that no provision was necessary under the circumstances. I told him that we had heard that Brazilian stocks were expected to be exhausted by the end of September and that we anticipated that political pressure would be brought for assistance [Page 472] in October. The following wheat statistics regarding Brazil were given to me at the meeting:
| IEFC tentative allocation, July–December | 90,000 | tons |
| Shipped, July–September | 50,000 | “ |
| Balance, October–December | 40,000 | “ |
| Recommended October program | 0 | |
| 1946–1947 shipments | 609,000 | “ |
The evident purpose of the meeting was to try to impress upon those present that the tentative figures, based upon the assumed surplus of 14 million tons, would very likely be reduced through re-calculation upon the basis of 13 million tons.
I received the impression that final allocations will depend upon several contingencies, including the unsettled question of increasing per capita food calories for Germany and Italy, the size of our exportable surplus of corn, etc., and that if Brazil really has to have wheat she will be supplied through a readjustment of allocations.