811.20 Defense (M) Bolivia/750
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Ambassador in Bolivia (Boal)52
Mr. Crespo, Minister of Economy, asked me to call on him yesterday afternoon. He said he had rather a difficult matter on his hands. He recalled that some time ago an export permit to ship 25 tons of tin concentrates to Argentina had been cancelled at the request of the Embassy as being in conflict with existing contracts. He said that unfortunately this permit had originally been issued as a result of a conversation between President Peñaranda and Dr. Ibanez Benavente, made while they were on a trip together; that the President quite innocently without realizing the limitations imposed by the tin contracts, had told Dr. Benavente (who had purchased the tin concentrates and desired to ship them to Argentina as a speculative operation) that he might do so. Dr. Benavente, he said, since the cancellation of the permit, had been representing to the President that having made an agreement on the basis of his oral assurance with the Argentine buyers, he was placed in a most difficult position through his inability to comply. Mr. Crespo indicated he had been asked to bring this matter up with me again.
I told him I had no authority to commit the Metals Reserve53 on the subject; and at the time it first came up they had not been willing to make an exception and as far as I knew this was still their position.
Mr. Crespo remarked that in his opinion such exceptions were dangerous, as one exception would lead to another and might result very adversely to the operation of the contract.
I told Mr. Crespo that in my opinion it was not desirable to have tin going out in such a manner that its destination and use could not be controlled with respect to hemisphere defense interests; that if the present instance were to be repeated inadvertently by other officials of the Bolivian Government or senators or congressmen, the same embarrassment would arise again, and it might be claimed if an exception had been made in one instance there was no reason to refuse to make one under similar circumstances. However, I explained to Mr. Crespo that I was not in a position to express an official view but this represented my personal opinion. Mr. Crespo said he entirely [Page 553] agreed on this point and he had already made up his mind in the same sense.
I said that I did not feel I could take up the matter at all unless I had specific data now on the circumstances under which the tin had been purchased by Dr. Benavente, the price he paid, the price he expected to sell at; any contracts or agreements involved and the names of the intended consignees. He said that if it became necessary he would supply such data to me, but he thought the matter might rest where it now is as I evidently was not in a position to hold out any hope to him regarding the making of an exception.
Mr. Crespo remarked that there was an exception allowing for an annual shipment of 25 tons of unrefined tin to Chile. He wondered whether this exception for one year to Chile might not be transferred to cover the shipment to Argentina, cancelling the one year provision with Chile. I remarked we had recently been notified by the Ministry of Economy that Hochschild54 desired to make the current 25–ton shipment to Chile. Mr. Crespo expressed surprise, stating he understood the inquiry regarding the shipment to Chile had been made on the basis of one half ton, not on 25 tons. He said he would look into this immediately as he was unaware that anything had been done on the whole 25 ton exception for Chile.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in his despatch No. 1149, January 16; received January 23.↩
- Metals Reserve Company, an instrumentality of the U.S. Government administered under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce.↩
- Mauricio Hoehschild was the owner of large tin mining properties in Bolivia.↩