Better Days

U.S.-Brazilian relations were rolling more smoothly than at any time since the years of World War II alliance. On the same day last week, in capitals 4,800 miles apart, Brazilians and Americans sat down to wind up long-pending business that would bind the New World's two biggest republics closer together.

In Rio, Brazil's Senate voted final approval, 40 to 8, of the Bilateral Military Assistance pact. Brazil agreed to supply strategic materials to the U.S.; in return, the U.S. will provide Brazil with technical military assistance and training equipment. The pact, similar to others signed with Chile, Cuba, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, had long been blocked and bitterly attacked by Communists and extreme nationalists as a slur on Brazil's "sovereignty." To preside over the joint Brazilian-U.S. military commission, President Vargas appointed Brigadier Eduardo Gomes, his 1950 election opponent.

In Washington, a Bank of Brazil agent signed the $300 million U.S. loan granted by decision of President Eisenhower just before Brazil partially devalued "its currency last February. As finally negotiated, the loan is to be guaranteed jointly by the bank and the Brazilian Treasury, and will be repaid in monthly installments over a three-year period. For U.S. exporters, who have had to wait up to nine months for payments during Brazil's dollar crisis, the government's promise to pay off the entire $423 million backlog by July i--and to carry on thereafter on a pay-as-you-go basis--was welcome news.

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