811.20 Defense (M) Bolivia/52: Telegram
The Chargé in Bolivia (Dawson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:33 p.m.]
31. Department’s 26, January 21, 6 p.m. Either first or second plan seems satisfactory if modified by agreement with British for them to keep out of Bolivian market competitively; second appears to Legation to be preferable. It is obviously as much to their interest as to ours for prices to be held down to a reasonable level. If Metals Reserve were the only authorized purchaser for the United Nations all Bolivian antimony should flow to the United States except perhaps for very small amounts to Argentina and we could keep our commitments to the British by turning over to them amount agreement [agreed] upon. A less satisfactory solution would be for British to establish ceiling prices equivalent to ours.
Department’s desire for reasonable bilateral agreement is shared by Legation but unfortunately not be [by] Hochschild or Banco Minero. Crux of matter is that antimony comes almost entirely from small producers and that Hochschild and Banco Minero want to make utmost possible profit as middlemen.
Inslee,53 Bohan54 and Worcester55 are absent but from earlier conversations I feel that they would concur in the above. Pixley56 and Oberbillig57 do.
- Joseph A. Inslee, member of the United States Economic Mission to Bolivia.↩
- Merwin L. Bohan, Chief of the United States Economic Mission.↩
- John Worcester, attached to the Economic Mission.↩
- Rex A. Pixley, Assistant Chief of the Economic Mission.↩
- Presumably Ernest E. Oberbillig, official of the Board of Economic Warfare.↩