811.20 (D) E.D.B./2261: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Chile (Bowers)
91. Since the receipt of your telegram no. 18, January 5, 6 p.m.,73 the Department and other agencies of this Government have been [Page 827] awaiting anxiously word from you that the negotiations looking to the limitation of Chilean consumption of copper for manufacture and export had been satisfactorily concluded. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation has pointed out that exports of copper and copper manufactures are now exceeding the 20,000–ton annual goal by approximately 1,000 tons per month. This is a serious loss to United Nations military requirements and further delay in arriving at an agreement can bring only detriment in the prosecution of the war. Please immediately present this case forcefully to the appropriate authorities and spare no effort to follow the negotiation through to a prompt and satisfactory conclusion within the framework we have already set up.
The Department again repeats the seriousness of this situation. Please reply by telegraph.
- Not printed; it indicated that Chile was about to issue a decree controlling the domestic consumption of copper.↩