811.20 Defense (M) Spain/1262: Telegram
The Ambassador in Spain (Hayes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11 p.m.]
720. Germans are actively buying wolfram. Their prices are roughly 20 percent higher than ours and as a result our intake for past [Page 356] few days has dropped considerably. At meeting of a committee yesterday the corporations were authorized to increase prices on selective basis up to 5 pesetas a unit not with view to acquiring more mineral but to elevate prices Germans will be obliged to pay.
On reasonable assumption that present temporary embargo will be continued until satisfactory agreement is reached for limitation on exports, we have abandoned our policy of all-out purchasing and have adopted foregoing maneuver designed to tie up as much German capital as possible in wolfram which they will be unable to export.
Repeated to Lisbon and London.