800.6354/116: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy)
188. Your 299, March 6, 7 p.m. and 315, March 9, 5 p.m. The Department considers it important to place more emphasis on adequate stocks than on prices. There is no reason, however, to avoid the question of price merely because of the reference to 189 pounds per ton as the Bolivian cost of production. This figure apparently comes from the 1937 report of Patino Mines and Enterprises. Information available here indicates that this figure included a loss on required sales of sterling exchange to the Bolivian Government totaling nearly 500,000 pounds or approximately 57 pounds per ton, more than 30 percent of the reported cost. A further 19 percent of the reported cost was represented by a sterling reserve for depletion and depreciation. All other costs and charges, including mining, transportation, smelting, overhead and all regular taxes to the Bolivian Government apparently came to less than £100 per ton.
For your information, with regard to the interest of Leith-Ross in this Government’s requirements of extra market supplies of tin, Congress has as yet taken no action authorizing Government purchases of reserve stocks76 and the prospects of large appropriations for this purpose are not bright.
- The Strategic Materials Act was approved June 7, 1939; 53 Stat. 811.↩