Editorial Note
On July 21, 1950, the Department presented to the Guatemalan Embassy a note in which it pointed out that in May and June of 1946 the two governments had by an exchange of notes agreed that the United States should furnish Guatemala armaments worth up to $3 [Page 910] million in return for concessions (including bases) granted by Guatemala under the Lend-Lease Agreement of November 16, 1942. (Text of the Agreement and accompanying understandings is printed in Foreign Relations, 1942, volume VI, pages 443–451. For text of the American note of May 23, 1946, and a summary of the Guatemalan reply of June 7, see ibid., 1946, volume XI, page 886.)
The note stated that the United States Government had furnished Guatemala $3,001,786.13 worth of munitions and therefore considered all obligations of either Government to the other to have been liquidated and the Agreement of November 16, 1942, to be terminated. (714.56/7–1350)
Documents in file 714.56 for 1950 and 1951 indicate that the Guatemalan Government considered certain goods delivered under the exchange of notes to be defective, and that Guatemala did not acknowledge the note of July 21, 1950.