740.00119 EW/2–1147

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Brazilian Affairs ( Dawson ) to the Acting Assistant Chief of the Division of German and Austrian Economic Affairs ( Todd )

The attached despatch from the Embassy at Rio de Janeiro encloses a note from the Brazilian Foreign Office87 again bringing up the question of Brazilian reparations aspirations. The note asks that the considerations in it be passed on to the Department. There is no indication that our Embassy in Rio has made any reply, so instructions from the Department to the Embassy embodying what we wish it to say are in order.

This is particularly advisable since the Brazilian Chargé at London88 complained to Murphy there on January 20 (see telegram 412, January 20, 8 p.m. from London.85) that his Government was put out [Page 492] at never having received an acknowledgment of its note no. 104 of April 26, 194690 to our Chargé at Rio on the subject of German reparations. This accusation may be technically correct as Ambassador Pawley appears to have presented no formal note, but he did take up the whole matter informally with the Brazilian Foreign Office in detail on the basis of airgrams A–442, A–443 and A–444 of June 24, 1946,91 drafted by Mr. Surrey of ES.

I should think it would be preferable for ES or GA to draft a reply to the attached despatch. There seems to me to be nothing much to do except to reiterate the position consistently taken by the Department and definitely instruct the Embassy in Rio to present a note embodying it so the Brazilians can have no grounds for further complaint that we have not studied their position and made our own clear in a formal fashion.

Allan Dawson
  1. Despatch 1669, February 11, 1947, not printed; for its enclosure, see p. 487.
  2. Hugo Gouthier de Oliveira Gondim.
  3. Not printed.
  4. Not printed.
  5. None printed.