834.24/636
The Ambassador in Paraguay (Frost) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s Circular Telegram of September 30, 2:00 p.m., 1943,50 in which was announced a simplification of the Decentralization Plan for materials in free supply. While the Embassy welcomes the simplification for various reasons, particularly because it tends to increase the volume of trade between the United States and Paraguay, at the same time it should be pointed out that this change in the Decentralization Plan reduces the effectiveness of the almost absolute control of consignees which the Embassy was able to maintain when Import Recommendations were required for all shipments.
Over-all control since the inauguration of the Decentralization Plan on April 1, 1943 has not been as complete as the Department anticipated in its Confidential Instruction of August 20, 1943,50 in which it was stated (Paragraph (1), Page 4) that in the future it should be possible to control cloaking activities very largely through the [Page 272] Decentralization Program of consignee control. On various occasions shipments have reached Paraguay which not only were not endorsed by Import Recommendations, but also were consigned to firms which the Embassy considered undesirable for the commodities concerned.
[Here follow examples of specific shipments.]