811.20 (D) Regulations/2921: Telegram
The Chargé in Peru (McGurk) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:10 p.m.]
235. Reference Department’s telegram No. 130 of June 12, 8 p.m. The following decree has become effective as of June 18 to cover the reexport situation in Peru (translation):
“The President of the Republic, considering:
That it is convenient to dictate dispositions which assure the existence in the country of the raw materials necessary for the national [Page 530] industries; and, that the world situation requires the adoption of exceptional and urgent measures with the object of assuring the stabilization of national industry and consumption as well as the requirements of national defense, decrees:
(1) The reexportation of the following products is prohibited be they in the form of raw materials or manufactured products:
Alcohol, aluminum, antimony, arsenic, asbestos, beryllium, cadmium, castor oil or beans, chromium, cobalt, coconut shell, char copper, copra, cotton, linters, cryolite, flaxseed, fluorspar, graphite, industrial diamonds, hides, iron and steel, kapok, lead, magnesium, manganese, mercury, mica, molybdenum, nickel, nitrogen compounds, ammonia and nitric acid, palm oil, phosphates, platinum, potash, quartz crystals, quinine, rubber, sisal, sulphuric acid including sulphur and pyrites, tanning materials, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium, zinc, zirconium.
The Ministry for Finance will permit the reexportation of these products only when the necessity of reexporting them to the countries of origin is proved.
(2) With reference to the exportation of machinery, tools, equipment and spare parts, prior authorization of the Ministry for Finance will be necessary. The Finance Ministry if it considers the same convenient will solicit information in each individual case in order to assure the necessities of national industry and defense. Given in the Government Palace in Lima on the 18th day of June, 1941. Signed Manuel Prado, David Dasso.”
The Finance Minister believes and we agree that the foregoing decree and that reported in our No. 164 of May 8, 9 [5] p.m.,53 paragraph 2, satisfactorily cover the reexport situation here. Mr. Dasso expressed the hope that the general export license for Peru would be granted immediately.
Mr. Dasso informed us that he felt quite certain that the Peruvian Government would restrict the export of strategic materials to the Western Hemisphere at a time that will coincide with the announcement of the United States plan for the purchase of Peruvian strategic and critical materials.
According to the Foreign Minister and the British Legation the Peruvian Government has made a commitment to the British to the effect that molybdenum and tungsten will not be exported beyond the limits of the Western Hemisphere except for prevailing contracts. In this relation please refer to despatches Nos. 1275 and 1278 of June 17, 1941.54