Exchange of Messages Between the President and President Kubitschek of Brazil on the Establishment of the National Advisory Committee for Inter-American Affairs.

Note: President Kubitschek's message follows:

I wish to congratulate you, Mr. President, on the establishment of the National Advisory Committee for Inter-American Affairs, with the timely purpose of considering current and future problems arising out of the relationship between the United States and Latin America. The fact that you have entrusted the Secretary of State himself with the chairmanship of the new body, as well as your selection of distinguished personalities to integrate it, clearly denote the purpose of carrying out a wise and constructive policy for the maintenance of peace and for a better understanding among the nations of our Continent.

Following our exchange of letters in 1958, and in line with pronouncements by eminent statesmen in Latin America, a movement of continental solidarity was launched which became known as Operation Pan America. The idea behind this movement won the unanimous approval of the twenty one Republics and it has already been the motive for three Inter-American meetings where certain concrete measures, though still insufficient in scope, have been agreed upon. Operation Pan America has a common objective that is both generous and deeply realistic.

Its first practical step will be the joint preparation of an assessment of the needs and of the economic problems of Latin America, in order that concrete measures be undertaken to fight the underdevelopment that plagues so many regions of this New World. I am sure, Mr. President, that a close consideration of the proposals presented within the framework of Operation Pan America by all the participant States will be of the highest value for the work of the newly formed Commission. The problems of development and those of the preservation of the democratic freedoms are inseparably welded together.

In the fervent hope of a thorough continental understanding, I pray God for your personal happiness and for the security and ever increasing greatness of the noble American people.

JUSCELINO KUBITSCHEK

The President authorized the Secretary of State to establish the Committee on November 14, 1959. A White House release of that date, announcing the President's action, states that the Secretary had named as members Ambassador Waiter J. Donnelly, Dr. Milton S. Eisenhower, G. Kenneth Holland, O. A. Knight, Charles A. Meyer, and Dr. Dana G. Munro. A report by Dr. Eisenhower following his 1958 tour of Latin American countries, released January 4, 1959, had recommended the establishment of such a committee.

On December 3 the White House announced that the President had met with the members on that day on the occasion of the Committee's inaugural meeting. The release states that the President told the committee members that their meeting was a reflection of the deep interest among the people of the United States in the affairs of the American Republics, and that his meeting with them on the eve of his departure to several countries of the Old World reflected his own interest in the New World and his faith in the future of the inter-American system.