816.6363/77
The Ambassador in El Salvador (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s airgram No. A–250 of May 31, 1943 (6:30 p.m.) and instruction No. 191 of June 2, 1943,22 concerning the statement of the Petroleum Supply Committee for Latin America showing that sales of petroleum products for consumption in El Salvador as compared with estimated requirements for the first three months of 1943 had exceeded the quota.
As reported in the Embassy’s airgram No. A–185 of June 4, 1943,23 [Page 316] and in compliance with the original instruction,24 the Department’s views were transmitted at once, informally, to the Salvadoran Sub Comité de Combustibles and, formally, to the Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Affairs.25 In reply, the Embassy has now received a communication from the Sub Comité de Combustibles and a copy, in the original Spanish, is forwarded herewith.
[Here follows in translation the Sub Comité’s communication of June 8 to Ambassador Thurston explaining El Salvador’s excess petroleum consumption.]
I had occasion to call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs on June 10 in connection with another matter. He brought up the subject of the Embassy’s note regarding Salvadoran excess consumption of petroleum products and stated that he had been requested by the Minister of Finance26 to say to me orally and informally that out of deference to the Embassy the official reply to the Embassy’s note above cited would be perfunctory, but that in fact the Government associated itself fully with the terms of the communication addressed to the Embassy on June 8 by the Sub Comité de Combustibles. I replied that I understood that perhaps the Embassy’s note was a bit firm in tone, but that after giving thought to the matter I had decided that I would address it to the foreign office nonetheless. I added that it seemed to me likely that when the matter had been gone into thoroughly it would be found that certain corrective measures would have to be taken here in order to ensure the continued supply of petroleum products required by El Salvador and I pointed out that according to reports that had been brought to the Embassy, one of the major defects in the present system is the lack of adequate control over governmental withdrawals.
In despatch No. 463 of June 15, 1943,27 the results of a thorough analysis of the statement of the Petroleum Supply Committee on petroleum consumption in El Salvador were reported. In brief, this report shows that national sales for the first three months of the current year in the Republic had exceeded the quota by only 3.7% and that appreciable excesses, if any, had occurred only in the special allotments for essential industries and activities. A large part of the overconsumption computed in this category was due to an error in the allocation of gasoline and diesel oil for moving the local coffee crop on a basis of average monthly consumption rather than on specific monthly consumption for the crop season. This error alone accounted for a large part of the alleged overdrawals, and the balance was due [Page 317] to extra gasoline, diesel oil and fuel oil for the construction of the Pan-American Highway and for the use of the International Railways of Central America, both uses of special interest to the United States Government. In view of these considerations, it seems doubtful whether or not El Salvador’s excess consumption of petroleum products for the first three months of 1943 was really of a serious nature.
Since this period, however, that is during April and May, overdrafts on petroleum products for “national sales” have steadily mounted and have reached a cumulative total of 2,294 barrels. It is believed that this excess consumption can be offset only by rather drastic measures. The note of the Sub Comité de Combustibles, although courteously worded, gives no assurance that such measures will be taken, indeed it seems to indicate that this body is entirely unwilling to curtail consumption further.
Since the inception of its rationing system the Government of El Salvador has maintained that consumption of kerosene, the principal means of lighting for the masses of the rural population, could not be cut much below normal levels and that ample supplies of diesel oil were basically essential to the economy of the country for urban and interurban passenger and produce transportation. To provide these supplies, then, a policy of drastic curtailment of motor gasoline consumption28 in order to allow for almost normal consumption of kerosene and diesel oil was adopted, and this policy was reasonably successful until about the end of March 1943. Since then underconsumption of gasoline has not offset overconsumption of the other two products.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Respectfully yours,
- Latter not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Airgram No. A–250, p. 313.↩
- Ambassador Thurston, on June 3, addressed a letter on this subject to the Salvadoran Minister for Foreign Affairs, Arturo Ramon Avila.↩
- Rodrigo Samayoa.↩
- Not printed.↩
- The Ambassador in El Salvador, in a section of this despatch here omitted, praised the curtailment program, stating that nearly 50 percent of all private cars had been denied gasoline altogether and that the remaining private automobiles were being allotted the barest minimum. He added, however, that gasoline for government official and unofficial cars had been curtailed scarcely at all.↩