Evening star., 1943-11-14

BELEM, Brazil-After a year and a
half Of effort and the expenditure of an
untold number of millions of dollars,
the plain fact is that rubber is still not
coming in any volume out of the Amazon
Valley.
That is the only conclusion it is pos
sible to reach after months tour of
the rubber areas and innumerable talks
with those who are trying to prime the
Amazon rubber pump. Probably the
Amazon will supply the minimum
amount of rubber counted on for the
basic needs of Americas war industry.
That is to say that with supplies from
Ceylon, Liberia and other sources-plus
Brazil-there will be enough natural
rubber in the current calendar year to
mix with synthetic in order to make
military tires with a scant minimum for
civilians. This imported natural rubber
will not be more than Is per cent of
Americas total new supply and from
Brazil we will obtain not more than
or per cent of the rubber we need
annually.
The best estimate of the amount to be
shipped out of this port at the mouth
OF the great river is $4,000 to 10000 tons
and that will include a part at least of
the production from the Bolivian end
OF the Amazon basin. Included also
would be small amount of types of
rubber other than the Hevea which is
native to the Amazon Valley.
Believes Yield to Go Down.
The man who remains most sanguine
about this Amazon project is Douglas
H. Allen, president of the Rubber De-
velopment Corp, which is now subsidiary
to Leo Crowley's Office of Foreign Eco
nomlc Administration. But when pressed
Allen himself puts rubber production in
the Amazon Valley at 10000 to IS 900
tons, OF which, under basic agreement,
10000 tons must go to Brazil While he
adds to this total from other sources
one must discount Aliens unfagging
enthusiasm and optimism.
On the volume of rubber to come out
OF the Amazon this year there is no
serious disagreement. Divergence of
opinion is sharper on the outlook for
the future. Allen believes the volume
OF production is increasing. DR..
Felisberto Camargo, head of the Insti-
tute -Agronomico do Norte, just outside
Belem, botanical expert who has
worked during recent years on disease
resistant strains of Hevea brazilensis,
believes that production is declining
and will continue to decline unless the
price of rubber is raised.
You can stop spending at least three
fourths of the money you are spending
here" DR.. Camargo says, "and merely
by raising the price Of rubber from As
cents-the stated price, although the
producx does not actually get this-to
60 cents, you will get increased produc-
ton"
Opinions differ most sharply on the
degree OF failure of the Amazon project.
Is it one of the great scandals of the
war? Or is it merely another instance
OF the waste inevitable in the face of
the demands of a conflict which caught
America tragically unprepared?
A Nutty Deal.
A great deal of nonsense has been
written about the luxurious spending
INDUCED in by Rubber Development Off
GERS. One columnist wrote about the
luxurious villa" maintained by an RDC
executive in Manaus the rubber center
a thousand miles up the Amazon. There
are no luxurious villas" in Manaus,
which is decaying frontier outpost.
When Reed Chambers, head of an avia-
ton insurance firm, was still an official
of Rubber Development, he occupied
when he was in Manaus what is perhaps
the incest house in the town. 1t hap
pens to have a modern bathroom and
two upstairs bedrooms, but it would
hardly grace even third-rate American
suburb.
Undoubtedly there has been waste and
on generous scale. At one point Rub
ber Development decided to buy up ST.
10000 worth of Brazil nuts on the
theory that If they took the nuts, then
workers in the nut industry would be
free to go into the forest for rubber.
1t developed later that the banks actual
ly held the nuts and the net effect of
RDC's action was to bail out the banks.
1t is doubtful if as much as $5O,Oe0 will
ever be realized from this purchase.
Through an apparent lack of knowl-
edge OF the Amazon, supplies were sent
upriver which were wholly unsuited to
the region-a type of flour and kind
OF bean which native rubber tappers
simply would not use. Large sums have
been spent in rehabilitating river steam
ers sent down from the United States
70 reopen the river trade. If rubber in