833.24/78: Telegram
The Ambassador in Uruguay (Dawson) to the Secretary of State
Montevideo, July 23,
1941—6 p.m.
[Received 7:20 p.m.]
[Received 7:20 p.m.]
317. Department’s telegram No. 156 of July 10 concerning lend lease program for transferring military material to Uruguay. I mentioned this matter to Guani over a week ago and yesterday I discussed the matter with him and the Minister of National Defense at the Foreign Office. The following points were brought out at the conference which was attended also by Chapin.
- 1.
- As we had suspected the Uruguayan Government has received no adequate report from its representative in Washington.
- 2.
- The Minister of National Defense states categorically that Uruguay will require the full $17,000,000 for needed material. He said that this includes only Army and Navy material and would not include materials and equipment for air fields.
- 3.
- The Minister of Foreign Relations pointed out that the Government has a credit of 7,600,000 pesos voted by Congress for armament of which there remains available a balance of 6,300,000 pesos which should at official exchange rates take care of 2 or 3 annual payments under our proposed repayment plan.
- 4.
- The Uruguayan Government, which apparently had not been informed with regard to the substance of the penultimate paragraph of the Department’s circular telegram of May 20, 10 p.m.,11 will proceed promptly to designate the ranking official of the military mission now in the United States to discuss Uruguay’s requirements with the War and Navy Departments.
Dawson