ABSTRACT
The financial arrangements for tonnage replacement were complex: when a ship was lost, the agreed depreciated cost of the vessel in 1939 was paid to the owner. The outbreak of war in 1939 presented Latin American countries with severe economic problems in terms of access to import-export markets, shipping services and credit facilities. Relations between the USA and Argentina deteriorated, stirred by increasingly active nationalist groups and political turmoil and with American accusations of pro-German sympathies. At the same time Argentina's relations with other Latin American countries came under pressure. The Rock, summarising the complex wartime breakdown of relations between USA and Argentina, suggests that trade and financial pressures through the 1930s led to the collapse of the conservatives in 1940-43 and the rise of the anti-American nationalists. The limited information given in annual reports and accounts sheds little light on wartime activities of management, although they were under great pressure.
