810.20 Defense/163⅛: Telegram
The Ambassador in Brazil ( Caffery ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 10—5:25 p.m.]
262. For the Under Secretary. My telegram 255, June 7, 9 p.m. Colonel Miller had a talk this morning with the Minister of War and gave him a full [apparent omission] conversation we had on Friday with Aranha. General Dutra said that the Minister for Foreign Affairs “had been empowered to speak and had spoken for the Brazilian Government” and that he agreed fully with what Aranha told me on Friday; that the army is ready to begin “the joint preparation of plans for resisting aggression either external or internal”. At the same time, however, he stressed the Brazilian Army’s present lack of arms and particularly of airplanes, harbor defense material, and motorized equipment. Dutra added that in his opinion Brazil would receive no more equipment from Germany in view of the approaching entry of Italy into the war.