Office of the Historian

821.248/1–846

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Bainbridge C. Davis of the Division of North and West Coast Affairs

confidential
[Washington,] January 8, 1946.
Participants: Señor Don Carlos Sanz de Santamaria, Ambassador of Colombia
Joseph Flack—NWC
Bainbridge C. Davis—NWC

Ambassador Santamaria called to take leave before accompanying General Arnold2 to Bogotá later this week. He will spend only a day or so in Colombia before returning to Washington. Dr. Santamaria indicated to Mr. Davis and subsequently to Mr. Flack that he felt that during the few months that he has been in Washington, he has failed to attain any of the important objectives sought by his government. Specifically he referred to his inability to obtain tires, demilitarized PBY–5A planes, C–47 transport planes3 or our (present) support for Colombia for the Economic and Social Council.4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

With respect to C–47’s, Ambassador Santamaria was reminded that the Colombian Government had decided not to purchase the C–47’s available from surplus in view of General Walsh’s5 suggestion that similar planes in better condition eventually could be secured in implementation of staff conversations. With reference to the PBY’s, Mr. Davis referred to the strenuous efforts which Ambassador Wiley had made to assist Colombia in securing PBY’s and told Ambassador Santamaria that he would check further with the Navy Department to see whether there was any possibility of obtaining such planes at this time. (See subsequent memorandum of telephone conversation [Page 649] of January 86 between Mr. Davis and Captain Saunders of the Navy Department, which indicates that Navy does not intend to declare surplus, within the near future, any PBY’s fit for service.*)

Ambassador Santamaria realized that the Department had agreed to go as far toward supporting Colombia on the Economic and Social Council as its prior commitments would permit.

  1. Gen. Henry H. Arnold, Commanding General, Army Air Forces.↩
  2. Naval patrol bombers and transport planes.↩
  3. For documentation on membership in ECOSOC, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. i, pp. 1510 ff.↩
  4. Maj. Gen. Robert L. Walsh, United States Army Air Forces.↩
  5. Not printed.↩
  6. —although subsequent conversations with Adm. Ramsey recorded at end of that memo indicates possible reconsideration. [Footnote in the original.]↩