Evening star., 1943-07-18
BV Richard Over.

RIO DE JANEIRO.-When the United
States gets the rubber she needs from
Brazil, it will mark victory in the battle
for rubber" which Brazilians prefer to
consider the ALREADY opened Brazilian
second front"
The Batalha de Borracha got under
way early this year and now trained men
are being moved thousands of miles
northWard and inland up the Amazon
to the jungles they must populate.
The original idea was to get $4,000
men into the backwoods of Amazonia for
this years harvest-June and July-but
now the program has expanded far be-
yond one-year affair and the goal of
5O,OO0
The idea for staging one Of the largest
mass migrations in history was born of
dual necessity, American and Brazilian,
and is being realized under the direc-
tion of man who knows what it is to
walk overland for hundreds of miles.
He is Minister Joao Alberto Lins de
Barros, Brazilian national economic CO.
ordinator, who prefers to be called simply
''the Minister Joao Alberto" and who
in the Goth led the defeated REM
nants of revolutionary group overland
through southern Brazil and the Mato
Crosse into Bolivian refuge.
Labor Geratest Requirement.
When experts of the then Rubber Re-
serve Co. looked over the Amazon last
year and made their estimates on how
Brazil was to furnish the United States
the rubber we needed for war, their first
request was for labor, men by the thou
sands. They were needed to repopulate
once-thriving Amazon rubber regions,
almost abandoned after the first decade
OF this century, when the rubber produc-
ton of the world shifted to the planta-
tions of the East Indies.
More men were needed to cut trails
and open up vast. untouched sections
which contained thousands of potential
rubber tons where hundreds now were
being produced.
First plan was for Rubber Reserve to
conduct mobilization OF volunteers and
ship them into the Amazon valley on
contract. 1t sounded simple on paper,
but available volunteers were from 5000
to 5000 miles away.
1nnumerabIe technical difficulties faced
an American enterprise attempting to
mobilize Brazilian labor on large scale,
If the men could be mobilized, trans
portation northward to the mouth Of
the Amazon River was dubious matter,
because of the Axis submarine cam
paign in the South Atlantic and short
age Of ships.
There were other problems.
At this point Joao Alberto initiated
the Battle for Rubber" with his pro-
posal to mobilize and deliver $4,000 to
Belem, on the River Para, one Of the
Amazon's mouths, without using ships.
How? asked Rubber Reserve officials.
Overland, by any means available,
from wherever they may be found"
the minister answered. "By train, auto,
truck, horseback, river boats, afoot, air.
plane or any other means we have. I
know the country. We can get the men
there, and on schedule"
To most Americans, Brazil Is ia
miliar coastline with a little known in
terror. Mass overland migrations were
Strlctly q BraZlnan problem.
Rubber Reserve accepted with alacrity.
A contract was signed with the Brazilian
co-ordinator's Office to pay 500 each
for every potential rubber worker de-
livered to Belem in good condition, up
to limit of $4,000 men delivered by
May 81, 1943, q deadline later extended
to June 30.
The contract was signed by Georges
S. Rabinovitch, Al, Swiss-born director
Of Brazilian labor relations for Rubber
Reserve and longtime technician with
the International Labor ONCE in Geneva,
and new division of the Brazilian CO.
ordinator's office known as the Special
Service for Mobilization Of Workers for
Amazonia"
Once the trails and supply stations are
in, the cultivated trees may be planted.
This is Brazirs opportunity to regain
the position she once held as the worlds
rubber source.
An indication Of the permanence of
the present program 10 seen In the plan
70 create nsW Brazilian territory, 70 b