811.24 Raw Materials/378½
Joint Statement Released by the Army and Navy Munitions Board on Strategic and Critical Raw Materials, October 11, 1939
To answer numerous queries that have been made upon the Army and Navy Munitions Board with reference to exports of strategic materials, the Honorable Charles Edison, The Acting Secretary of the Navy, and the Honorable Louis Johnson, The Assistant Secretary of War, authorized publication of the following statement issued by the Army and Navy Munitions Board:
“Under the authority of the Act of Congress relating to the purchase and storage of strategic and critical materials for national use during a war emergency, the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department has recently issued proposals for the acquisition of stocks of certain materials classified as strategic by the Army and Navy Munitions Board in consultation with representatives of the State, Treasury, Commerce and Interior Departments.
“The principal purpose of this activity is to assure, in the event war should interrupt the supply, that there will be available in the United States a sufficiency of those materials essential to the industrial economy of the Nation. The materials which will be so accumulated are those which cannot be produced in sufficient quantities in the United States to satisfy vital requirements. The most important of the materials classified by the Army and Navy Munitions Board as strategic are:
| Antimony | Quartz Crystal | Silk |
| Chromium | Quicksilver | Tin |
| Manganese, ferrograde | Quinine | Tungsten |
| Manila Fiber | Rubber |
“Since the outbreak of the present war in Europe foreign purchasers have either obtained or are attempting to obtain for shipment abroad, supplies of these strategic materials which have been imported into this country by private interests for use by American industry.
“From the standpoint of national defense it is perhaps imprudent to ship out of the country those materials which can be replaced only by imports, especially at the present time when it is becoming more difficult and more expensive to secure even the minimum imports of many of the materials listed.
“The emergency stock program which has been recently initiated by the Government will be nullified if materials which are normally in stock in the United States not owned by the Government are reexported. Activities of foreign buyers have resulted in the removal of some 10,000 tons of rubber and an appreciable amount of tin from the market since September 1. Attempts have also been made to obtain ferromanganese and supplies of other strategic materials, either in a raw or semi-finished form now in the United States for export.
“Such sales are condemned by the more patriotic and responsible dealers and manufacturers in the United States, who are cooperating with the Army and Navy Munitions Board in its effort to increase the supply of these materials within the Country.”