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 [Page 229] 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.]
[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 [Page 230] 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.
