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- a» ”’ STANDARD Pond NO. 64 v é Office Me. andum * UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Ny Pan 4, To Ot De u, 26. Dare: august /Z9, 1946 FROM: C. He ches. (Gist pect: O ; ALL INFOTHATION CONTAINED un aaa eteteeetre ee reanization | REI IS Us CLASSIFIED : EXCEPT WHERE SHOWN OTHERWISE b Prior to the departure of ‘ent 7% on his assi t + jhe was rructed to review the informants set up coun with particular regard to the utilization of the Basque Intelligence Organization. During the past two years_ye, have paid the Basque Organization in Argentina $2,000.00 monthly. Je SRREERE 8 recently advised that he discussed the question of the work being performed by the Basques on several occasions recently with Jose Maria“de’Lasarte, the head of the organization in Argentina, It was pointed out to Lasarte that the volume of the information submit— ted by his group, while valuable, was’ not sufficient to justify the large monthly payment presently being made, Lasarte said he realized that fact and that he intended to discuss the matter with his superiors in New York, with a view to reorganizing their service in Argentina. Lasarte was to leave Buenos Aires on July 23 last en route to France and expected to spend two to three weeks in New York City. 4e tol that during the past year he had never known whether or not their © services were going to be continued and hesitated to arrange a complete reorganization which called for bringing in additional personnel. ce ‘) explained that with the change in emphasis from coverage of Nazi 6-1 ri es probably do better wor! @ brow: sever ndividuals from other countries in Latin America and in Europe who were more familiar with the Communist picture. Lasarte indicated that after his conversations in New York, a oo! e plan for reorganization will be submitted to the Bureau for approval, : bre GRR rccestes that if a new arrangement is made with the : Basques, it wor preferable to arrange to pay the Argentine group ; through their headquarters in New York City. He said that in his present situation, it was extremely difficult to obtain the large amowmt of Argen’ pesos required to pay them on account of local currency roan lations.! The payments made to the Basques in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and other Latin American countries have been reviewed. Employment of Basques in Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Cuba, the only other countries in ‘Sees