AF files, lot 58 D 459, “Miscellaneous”
Memorandum by the Director of the Foreign Expansion Division of the Defense Materials Procurement Agency (Stott) to the Assistant Administrator for Supply of the Mutual Security Agency (Fitz-Gerald)
Subject:
- Shabani–Pafuri–Lourenco Marques Railway1
In considering US support of this project, which it is understood would be partially financed by the Southern Rhodesian and Portuguese Governments, DMPA Foreign Expansion Division offers the following comments and recommendations:
- 1.
- The chief benefit to be derived by the conclusion of this project is the mobilization of metallurgical chrome which originates along the great dyke of Southern Rhodesia and Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia. Normally, and in past years, this important production has been exported via the Umtali–Beira and Port of Beira route. The total tonnage, based on past production, is from 250,000 to 350,000 tons per year according to demand.
- 2.
- Other important production in the order of tonnage is (1) Northern Rhodesia blister and refined copper, 250,000 to 300,000 tons per year, and minor tonnages of asbestos, zinc concentrates, slab zinc, tobacco, etc., all of which are normally exported through Beira.
- 3.
- Of the items named in para 2 above, Northern Rhodesia copper and zinc originating in the Belgian Congo and at times shipped through Beira, could very well be shipped through Lobito via the Beseka and Benguela railways in the event of an emergency tie-up of the Port of Beira or the Umtali-Beira rail connection, by accepting the freight differential between N’Dola and Lobito. It should be pointed out that copper and asbestos as well as lead and zinc concentrates, having a much higher per ton valuation than chrome but taking up less [Page 299] space, do not incur the same storage or shipping problems as bulk chrome ore. There has never been any worry on the part of the copper people on occasional delays in their production reaching its destination. This same applied to the asbestos produced in Southern Rhodesia.
- 4.
- Mechanical chrome loading facilities and a new chrome wharf are being completed at Beira; also, ECA has loaned fifteen and a half million dollars to Southern Rhodesia Railways for the purpose of adding to their rolling stock and improving their railway system, which should go a long way toward improving the Salisbury–Umtali branch and enable it to handle more tonnage between these points. It is understood the Portuguese Government financed themselves in providing more locomotives and rolling stock for the Umtali–Beira railroad.
- 5.
- The proposed Shabani–Pafuri–Lourenco Marques line will not result in development of new sources of strategic materials unless it is considered that Sabi Valley coal may have marketable possibilities. Of course as an assist in the development of agriculture and possibly other products as an aid to the general economy of that section, the railroad is to be recommended.
- 6.
- Any new railroad construction in the general district of Central Africa will result in pulling labor from the mining industry, which is already starved for native labor in such regions as Wankie, the Selukwe chrome and the asbestos mines. Importation of labor for railway construction from other parts of Africa cannot be counted upon to achieve success in overcoming the shortage of labor in the region under consideration. On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that transfer of available labor to the less populated districts has, in the past, met with disastrous results. Some 2,000 natives from the Copper Belt of Northern Rhodesia were sent to the Wankie coal mines during the past year and a half, in order to raise Wankie coal production. As far as we know the project was a failure, as witness the inability of Wankie to even maintain their old production rate, and the return of a great part of the natives to their homes in Northern Rhodesia. At a time when top production is needed at the coal mines as well as the asbestos and chrome mines, it would seem that the initiation of a railway construction project in this district might very well result in decrease in metal production at a time when these metals are badly needed.
In summary, it is our feeling that although the proposed rail line from Shabani through Pafuri to Lourenco Marques would greatly benefit the chrome producers as an alternate route and probably add somewhat to the economy of the region, this railway project is not vital to the mobilization or development of materials and should be viewed as the third car in a family—convenient but not necessary.
In other communications with the UK Mission regarding the matter of railroad links and extensions in Southern Rhodesia, we have mentioned that our present interest is in the early implementation of the presently existing contract with the Southern Rhodesian Government wherein they would allot certain percentages of coal based on Wankie production, these allocations to be to Northern Rhodesia for the copper producers. Our feeling is that Southern Rhodesia has failed [Page 300] to enter into the spirit of the contract by keeping up reasonable allocation of coal to the northern copper producers, even though Wankie production during the past quarter fell slightly below the contract base of 200,000 tons per month. Even when Wankie coal production in September exceeded 200,000 tons, deliveries of coal to the Copper Belt were held back although we have a signed memorandum from the manager of the Southern Rhodesian Railways to the effect that he had capacity to haul 56,000 tons of coal to the Copper Belt per month. It would therefore seem that, if it is contemplated that a loan should be made to Southern Rhodesia to assist them in financing of the railroad to Pafuri, MSA should take a good look at Southern Rhodesian compliance with their present contract with ECA and the spirit of the contract which implied they would transport, within their means, all of the coal allocated to Northern Rhodesia. In other words, any further loans to the Southern Rhodesian Government should have some strings on them which would bring about cooperation on their part in assisting to increase copper production in Northern Rhodesia.
We are currently investigating possibilities of shipping upwards of 20,000 tons of coal from the US to the copper mines in Northern Rhodesia for the purpose of increasing the monthly copper production of those mines by 10,000 to 12,000 tons metallic copper with provision that this additional copper would be purchased by the US for consumption by US industry. However, there is some doubt manifested by the Rhodesian copper producers that should the US coal be imported then Southern Rhodesia would reduce the Wankie coal allotments to the Northern Rhodesian copper mines to the same amount as the US imports, as Southern Rhodesia has done in the past whenever Northern Rhodesian copper brought in extra fuel or substituted with wood burning. If the Southern Rhodesian Government continues such an uncooperative policy in the face of the defense requirements of the Western Europe and the US, then certainly, they should not expect future US assistance in new projects of this type.
- For previous information on this topic, see despatch 43, dated Sept. 10, 1951, Foreign Relations, 1951, vol. v, p. 1230.↩