811.20 Defense (M) Turkey/675–: Telegram
The Ambassador in Turkey (Steinhardt) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 11—6:29 a.m.]
1219. Following is a summary of the movement of Turk chrome in long tons during the first 6 months of 1943.
1. The production between January 1 and June 30, 1943, is estimated at approximately 43,000 tons of which amount 32,000 were produced at the Guleman Mines.
2. Movement of chrome for British account. During the period under review 36,222 tons were delivered at accessible ports. Of this amount 28,201 tons were shipped to accessible ports from Fethiye and Gocek; 4,240 tons were shipped to accessible ports from Izmir; and 3,781 tons were moved by rail to Mersin from Guleman Mines and Sdzak.
During same period 33,705 tons were shipped from accessible ports to Egypt in transit for U.S.
On June 30 the stocks of provisionally and finally accepted chrome ore at ports and railway dumps amounted to 54, 142 tons, of which amount 34,052 were at ports 20,090 at railway dump. In addition there were 314,520 tons of declared ore at the mines.
There were no deliveries to British of ore mined in 1943.
3. Movement of chrome for German account. During the period under review 14, 101 tons were delivered at accessible ports for shipment to Germany comprising 8,236 tons at Istanbul by rail from Guleman, 5,320 tons at Istanbul by sea from Fethiye and 545 tons at Bandirma by rail. Of this quantity 13,415 tons 5,424 tons by rail and 7,991 by sea, were actually exported from Turkey to Axis territory.
[Page 1161]Embassy is informed by Stotz, BEW, that the Near East and European Axis sections of BEW are much interested in receiving information on movements of chrome from Turkey.