811.20 Defense (M)/1941a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Bolivia (Jenkins)
43. The Bolivian Minister was asked to call at the Department subsequent to the telephone conversation between Clayton, Feis, and yourself.
The attempt was made to impress him, so that he might put the matter as completely as possible before his Government, with the fact that the Bolivian Government could fairly be asked to make a special [Page 459] effort to conclude the sale of tungsten to us in the light of our many sided present effort to contribute to Bolivian welfare, including recent discussions having to do with aid under the lease-lend bill.92 It was explained to him that the Federal Loan Administrator had been of the opinion that an effective agreement had actually been negotiated and had a natural sense of disappointment to find that he was now being pressed to make further offers at the risk of disturbing the whole market for tungsten.
The Minister was informed however that upon the urging of this Department the Federal Loan Administrator is prepared to increase his purchase price for tungsten. He was told that what the Federal Loan Administrator wished to ascertain was the price at which now the Bolivian Government would commit itself immediately and finally and that we wished to avoid any possibility that after improving the price on which our previous discussions had been based the matter might become the subject of still further uncertainty and bargaining maneuver. It was hinted to the Minister that the Metals Reserve Company would consider a price in the neighborhood of $19 or $20; it was evident that the Minister thought that his Government would be pleasantly surprised by this substantial improvement in the present arrangement.
- 55 Stat. 81.↩