832.51/1758
Memorandum by the Adviser on International Economic Affairs (Feis)
By instructions of Mr. Berle, I telephoned Mr. Francis White at 10:40 a.m. and read him, first, Mr. Berle’s telegram to him of March 5, second, Department’s telegram 54 to the Embassy at Rio de Janeiro (which I asked him not to take down textually), and third, the amended formula for the first sentence of the announcement to be made by the Council.
On the latter Mr. White said that the concluding phrase as he had it was “no favorable prospect of obtaining any better offer”, whereas the text I had read said “no favorable prospect of obtaining a better offer.” He said the choice of “a” or “any” was indifferent to him. We tentatively agreed to keep the word “any”. He said that this was of course not the complete formula, the second sentence, which he had not discussed with Mr. Berle yesterday, remaining as before. The complete formula would therefore be as follows:
“Without passing in any way on the merits of the Brazilian proposal which was not negotiated by it, the Council limits its comment on the proposal of the Brazilian Government received through the Department of State to the remark that pursuant to consultation with the Department of State, negotiations at present would seem to hold no favorable prospect of obtaining any better offer. The Council must leave to bondholders to determine whether or not they will accept what is now offered.”
Mr. White said that he is working on the matter but had not had much success in contacting the Executive Committee members, all of whom seemed to be tied up with very important business. He was keeping at it and would telephone as soon as he was in a position to report.
He briefly discussed the last sentence of the telegram to Rio de Janeiro and we agreed that its intent was to suggest that even though President Vargas is leaving Rio today, it might be possible for Aranha to obtain authority from him before he leaves to make the debt offer whenever the proposed assurances from the Council are received by Aranha.