811.20 Defense (M) Peru/31: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru ( Norweb )

107. The office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs has arranged to send a group of mineral experts to Peru in order to study the development of strategic and critical materials. The group is to be financed entirely by this Government since the members will be engaged primarily in work for this Government. It is understood, however, that the group may render appropriate assistance to Peruvian mining authorities if such assistance can be arranged without interference to their primary objective.

The men will be responsible to the Ambassador and subject to the immediate direction of Charles Will Wright, who is now connected with the Coordinator’s Office. The Department is informed that Wright has already mailed to Lima detailed instructions for the [Page 665] group. All reports of the group will be delivered through the Embassy to the Department.

You are requested to give these men appropriate cooperation and assistance and to inform the Peruvian Government of the nature of their visit. If the members of the group should wish to visit areas for which permission is necessary, it is thought that this can be arranged informally when the occasion arises.

The group is expected to arrive in Lima by plane on February 8. It will consist of four members, all of whom are mining engineers. Ethelbert Dowden is the head of the party, and the others are Kenneth Walker, Frank Sistermans, and Carrel B. Larson. It was suggested in your telegram no. 493 of September 3 [23] 1941,1 that J. A. Woolf be sent as a metallurgist. This was not possible to arrange because the Bureau of Mines could not dispense with Woolf’s services.

Instructions for paying the expenses of the group will be transmitted later.

Hull
  1. Not printed.