800.5018/11–347
The Chief of the Division of Brazilian Affairs (Dawson) to the Counselor of Embassy for Economic Affairs in Brazil (Brooks)
Dear Clarence: We thought we were getting 25,000 tons of wheat or wheat equivalent in flour for Brazil for December as compared with 15,000 tons for November and zero for October but a little fly came into the ointment. The figure of 25,000 was approved in the lower strata of Agriculture and would have brought the wheat allocations for Brazil for the whole of the second semester of 1947 right up to the IEFC’s original recommendation of 90,000. However, when the December allocations got up to Secretary Anderson, he slashed those for almost all countries and the Brazilian one was reduced to 20,000 tons. The December allocations were officially announced on October 30.
In my conversations with the people in the Brazilian Embassy, I am taking the optimistic line that, while we did not meet their desire for 40,000 tons a month, at least the trend has been up. We hope to keep the monthly figures at 20,000 in early 1948 but, of course, what success we will have is in the laps of the Gods. One good aspect is that the White House has taken an interest in the general problem and that Jim Still well, who is acting as an assistant to Steelman,67 on detail from the Department, is sympathetic.
. . . . . . .
Yours, as ever,
- John R. Steelman, Assistant to the President.↩