Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1942, Europe, Volume III

811.20 Defense (M) Portugal/194

The Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Salazar) to the American Minister in Portugal (Fish)¹⁷

[Translation]

No. 36

Lisbon, August 24, 1942.

Mr. Minister: I have the honor to transmit to Your Excellency the enclosed document wherein there are set forth the results achieved in the negotiations relating to the supply of wolfram from Portugal to the United States of America and to the United Kingdom, during the period from March 1, 1942 to February 28, 1943, and to which the Portuguese Government agrees.

On this date I am addressing to the Ambassador of Great Britain in Lisbon a Note in the same tenor.

The present Note with the attached document, Your Excellency’s Note in reply and that of the Ambassador of Great Britain, accompanied by the respective English text, should be considered as instruments of the agreement entered into between the three Governments, which enter into force as of this date.

I avail myself [etc.]

Antonio Salazar

[Enclosure]

Document Setting Out the Results of the Negotiations Regarding the Supply of Wolfram From Portugal to the United Kingdom and the United States From March 1, 1942, to February 28, 1943

(a) The organizations designated by His Majesty’s Government and the United States Government may export wolfram up to a maximum amount of 4,000 tons under the terms of the present Agreement. The Portuguese Government will grant promptly on request the necessary export licenses for Great Britain, the Dominions and the British Colonies and for the United States of America.

(b) The production of the mining concessions belonging to: Beralt Tin & Wolfram Ltd., Sociedade Mineira do Cabril, Stanley Mitchell, Aliança Minero-Industrial, and Sociedade de Minas de Miranda (formerly called Sociedade Mineira de Argozelo) shall be allocated to the United Kingdom. For this purpose export licenses will be granted for quantities of wolfram equal to the quantities which shall have been delivered to the warehouses of the Comissao Reguladora do Comercio de Metais and produced by the above-mentioned concessions, subject always to the limit referred to in Clause (a).

(c) The production of the Borralha Mine shall be allocated to the United Kingdom for the duration of the present contract between that Mine and the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation and so long as the judicial ruling which ordered the execution of that contract shall be maintained or is not revoked by a subsequent judicial decision. If the said judicial ruling should be revoked, the Portuguese Government will compensate His Majesty’s Government for the loss of the production of the mine.

(d) The production of the concessions belonging to Vesey Brown which are not subject to judicial proceedings shall be allocated to the United Kingdom as soon as the present Agreement enters into force and the production of the concessions which are subject to judicial proceedings shall be allocated in conformity with the decisions of the Portuguese courts.

(e) The production of the Compagnie Miniere de la Ribeira shall be allocated to the United States subject to the Portuguese Minister in Washington considering satisfactory the evidence presented by Mr. P. F. Berry that he is the owner of the majority of the shares of the Company.

(f) As regards the production of the mines referred to in Clauses (c), (d) and (e), which, according to the terms of those clauses, is to be allocated to the United Kingdom and the United States, export licenses shall be granted for quantities of wolfram equal to the quantities which shall have been delivered to the warehouses of the Comissao Reguladora do Comercio de Metais and produced by those mines.

(g) Export licenses shall be granted for the destinations referred to in Clause (a) up to a total of one-quarter of the total quantity of wolfram delivered to the warehouses of the Comissao Reguladora do Comercio de Metais from the free mines. If the production of wolfram from these mines up to February 28, 1943 should exceed 2,000 tons, export licenses will be granted for the above-mentioned destinations for one-half of the excess.

(h) All references to wolf ram in the present Agreement shall be understood as including wolfram in the form of concentrates, whether extracted from wolframite or from any other mineral and also wolfram in unseparated form or in residues.

(i) If the total quantity of wolfram to be allocated to the United Kingdom and the United States according to the terms of this Agreement should exceed 4,000 tons, that excess shall be the subject of special negotiations between the Portuguese Government and His Majesty’s Government and the United States Government.

(j) The mineral produced by Borralha which is to be allocated to the United Kingdom in accordance with Clause (c) shall be bought by the Comissao Reguladora do Comercio de Metais at the price laid down for the mineral from the free mines.

(k) The Portuguese Government will give all necessary facilities for the maintenance and development of the mines whose production is allocated to the United Kingdom and the United States and for this purpose agrees:

(1) to grant entry visas and permits to work in Portugal for up to ten mining experts or engineers, either United States citizens or British subjects; the corresponding applications shall be made to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their bona fides, including those of a political character, shall be guaranteed by the American Legation or the British Embassy;

(2) that the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation, acting for itself or as agent of the United States Commercial Company, may import on its own account goods of foreign origin for the operation of the mines concerned in sufficient quantity for current work and for development and for the maintenance of a reasonable reserve against any contingency, except when, if there is a scarcity of the goods concerned, it should be attributable to His Majesty’s Government or the United States Government.

(l) The present Agreement shall be put into force provisionally pending the entry into force of the Agreement relating to the exchange of goods between Portugal on the one hand and the United Kingdom and the United States on the other,¹⁸ but shall be considered void if, within five weeks from the date of the present Agreement, the abovementioned Agreement for the exchange of goods shall not have been concluded and put into force.

17. Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Portugal in his despatch No. 573, August 25; received September 1.
18. A Supply-Purchase Agreement regarding the exchange of goods for the period from July 1, 1942, to June 30, 1943, between Portugal on the one hand and the United States and the United Kingdom on the other was made effective by exchange of notes on November 23, 1942. A Supply-Purchase memorandum was attached to the notes setting forth the results of the negotiations, and giving in detail the quantities of the enumerated products to be supplied each other. The exchange of notes, together with the Supply-Purchase memorandum, was transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Portugal in his despatch No. 711, November 25, 1942, not printed.