Belt-Tightening

In the year and a half that Edward G. Miller Jr. has been U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, he has scored many a point with sympathetic words and by deft handling of sensitive Latin Americans. Last week Miller peeled off his velvet gloves in a blunt address to U.S. coffeemen and Brazilian guests at the National Coffee Association's convention in Boca Raton, Fla. Miller's message: the U.S. expects Latin America to share in the world struggle against Communist imperialism by adjusting its economy to the realities of the U.S. war-production program. The Latin countries' first tasks, he said, would be to tighten their belts, prepare for rationing of U.S. exports, increase their own production of strategic materials for sale at controlled prices, and brace themselves for the hardships of economic mobilization.

Miller had little to say about the ticklish subject of coffee production and prices; the inference was that the State Department no longer considered the controversial Gillette report on coffee-market manipulations (TIME, June 19) a hot issue. Instead, he bore down on world issues. Said he: "It may perhaps be charged that the" remarks I ... make are not wholly in accord with the traditional concepts of diplomatic conduct . . . The peoples of Latin America [must] realize and appreciate the magnitude of our effort and sacrifice in treasure and blood in the far-flung fields of the East-West conflict . . . While we are making these sacrifices to defend our national integrity, we are [contributing] very particularly to the security of the entire hemisphere."

Miller mentioned recent spectacular dollar earnings by Latin American countries selling strategic goods to the U.S., and warned that this flow of dollars, continued in the future, would bring a new danger of inflation, since the U.S. on a war-production footing must cut down or eliminate many exports. Nevertheless, Miller said, the U.S. can guarantee that Latin America will get its share of scarce U.S. goods in return for full cooperation. "But we must face up to the fact," he said, "that shortages and controls are inevitable."

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