633.116/67
The Chargé in Uruguay (Reed) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 138 of January 13, 1938,45 entitled “Complete Prohibition of American Imports into [Page 926] Uruguay”, and to report that I have today had an interview with Dr. Raúl Jude, Acting Minister of Finance and of the Interior, who has been away most of the week in connection with the airplane accident on the Uruguayan frontier in which the son of the President of Argentina lost his life. I explained to the Minister the serious position of the importers of American goods, and handed him a brief memorandum showing the statistical position of the United States in Uruguay’s trade, according to three different statistics, Uruguayan Customs, United States Department of Commerce, and those based on the declared exports compiled by the Consulate General in Montevideo. He was not aware of the complete stoppage of importing from the United States, and agreed with me that means ought to be found to promptly terminate this situation. I made it clear that I had come to see him without instructions from my Government, in the hope that it might be possible to settle the difficulty before the American Government should take any action which might affect the commercial relations of our two countries. The Minister was in entire sympathy with my point of view, and promised to find a way out of the present situation. He summoned the General Manager of the Bank of the Republic46 for an immediate discussion of the matter, and promised to inform me at once when he had decided what action to take. This interview was briefly reported in my telegram No. 4 of today.
Respectfully yours,