710 Consultation 4/9–847

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chairman of the United States Delegation (Marshall)

secret
Participants: Sr. Dr. Luis Fernando Guachalla, Bolivian Foreign Minister
Secretary Marshall
Major Vernon A. Walters

After the customary exchange of greetings I asked Mr. Guachalla how he felt that the work of the Conference was progressing. He replied that he felt that it was progressing very well. He added that he thought that all the Committees would have completed their work by the 28th of August and that it would take three or four days beyond that to translate the drafts into four languages, print the texts etc. Mr. Guachalla thought that everything was going very smoothly.

I spoke of the desirability of reaching a speedy agreement because of the effect that it would have on the rest of the world. He agreed and complimented me on my speech, stating that he was especially gratified by the fact that I had expressed the willingness to take up with other governments economic collaboration, as he felt that such economic collaboration was very important and a necessary adjunct of defensive collaboration.

He hoped that when Latin American countries asked for technical assistance that I would grant such requests as many of the Latin American countries did not have the engineers etc. that they required to develop their countries. He spoke of the desire of his government to build a railroad to the El Beni area, but the serious lack of technicians was slowing down the work on this railroad, as well as the development of the whole country. He said that he believed that up to now the United States had only been able to send military missions but that he hoped that it would soon be possible to send technical missions also.

I then expressed the hope that some way would be found for the [Page 69] Latin American countries to take advantage of U.S. technical assistance and to open up their countries to U.S. capital, without in any way sacrificing their economic sovereignty. I then spoke of the possibilities of Brazil in the petroleum field,10 and we spoke briefly of the constitutional structure of the United States.

  1. For documentation on the position of the United States with respect to Brazilian petroleum requirements and legislation, see pp. 458 ff.