824.504/158b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Bolivia (Boal)
187. For Justice Magruder. Amplifying the views expressed to you by telephone this afternoon, the Department believes that the [Page 612] primary focus of the inquiry into labor conditions should be in the mining industry since the time element will probably preclude a thorough study of labor problems in all fields. Moreover, relations between the mining companies and their employees seem to be more acute than similar relations in either other industrial enterprises such as the YPFB79 or in agriculture.
Furthermore, it will obviously be far easier to secure immediate responsive action here to remedy conditions in the mining industry where our war effort is directly affected by our ability to receive strategic minerals than in other fields. It would seem desirable, of course, that you be responsive to the request of the Bolivian Government for advice in other fields than the mining industry; but at all times it should be borne in mind that our ability to help may be limited by war needs.
Since preparing the foregoing your telegram 248, February 4, noon, has arrived. It is noted that the views of the mission and those of the Department in substance coincide. It is hoped that the Minister of Labor will agree with the program outlined in your telegram under reference.
- Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos.↩