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c No November 23, Re: BASQUE ORGANIZATION IN ARGENTINA Administrative (The Galician group is larger than the Basque in Argentina, but is evidently completely unorganized for intelligence work). As pointed out in the letter, the latter two men, Zz the one working on Communism and have been ? unproductive to date. Informatio eg onmunists by D has been obtained by QF through local Catalan contacts and through a friend who has managed to enter the Communist Party here. It has been pointed out to De Lasarte that while there is a large number of pecrle in Argentina who are either Basques or of Basque descent, contacted through the Basque Delegation, actually this group appears to be of little use to him in obtaining information either because of faulty contact or poor organization, This hes been ad- 4 Q Lane mitted by him and he has explained that difficulties caused wee by the present Argentine government and police attitude towards —- intelligence work are responsible; moreover, the existence of deed & large Basque colony is always cited by him as a principal attraction of the Basque Organization here. The files, which are mentioned, are in such shape as to be of little use to us at present; requests given them in August for informetion on individuals which they are supposed to heve ere stiil un- mag answered because, they say, the files ~re not yet organized = so that the information can be found Under the section known as "Results" of the Summary it is noted that part 2 complains that attention has not been given to various plans for interesting industrial enterprises. It is recalled that one written plan was sub- mitted by De Lasarte for the construction of tunnels in ee a? ee oe eT eee Wen fet nA er tha ornnenn Argentina; this was in turn submitted by us to the appropria ate section of the Embassy which, in turn, advised it had no interest in the project. De Lasarte was advised of all this. Then, before a working relationship was entered into by us with De Lasarte on June 8, but while negotiations were in the preliminary stage, he * mentioned the possibility of sub- sidizing a small Basque fishing concern which might be started on the southern Argentine coast, and wondered whether this would be of interest. After the relationship was entered ' ‘ {nto he was asked for details on this matter and stated thet it was then too late, that the opportunity had been lost.. No other industrial enterprise projects heave been submitted for our consideration, ; Under the section known as *Budget", attention is called to part 2. De Lasarte has admitted that he had the expenses - get forth under this part, except for that noted as “two thousand pesos for the section working with 3. c.%, prior to ~ our entering into relationship with him. He has said he was y coe pam