Proposed Sale of Warships to Brazil
On 9 January 1922, an Admiralty M-Branch minute referenced a request by Brazil to purchase sloops from Britain, and recommended that the Brazilians be advised that “their answer must await the conclusion of the Washington Conference.”
On 10 January 1922 a telegram from the British Admiralty to the British Naval Delegation in Washington referred to an enquiry by the Brazilian Naval Attache as to the possibility of buying two or more light cruisers, eight or more destroyers, and other unspecified vessels. A similar telegram was sent from the Foreign Office to the Head of the British Delegation (Balfour) on 18 January. On the 26th Balfour replied, confirming that the delegations of the five signatory powers had all made a commitment, binding in honour, not to dispose of any warships in such a manner that they could become part of the fighting forces of any other power. In March 1922 a Foreign Office letter to the Finnish Government terminating negotiations for the sale of second-hand British Destroyers to Finland, made reference to the simultaneous termination of negotiations with four other nations. Handwritten notes on the draft of this letter in the Foreign Office files identify one of those nations as Brazil. .