Evening star., 1943-06-29


Sydney, Australia, by three fish
ect we have worked out in Gaute-
mala.
1.-THE other quinine programs Of
the board, such as gathering wild
cinchona bark in Latin America,
have been pushed aggressively by
the Board of Economic Warfare, and
Army officers are now surveying this
work in the foreign field with men,
bers of our staff. Even this work,
am sorry to report, was held up by
Mr.. Jones in the late summer of
1912, some nine months after Pearl
Harbor."
Discussing purchases of cinchona
bark in Latin America, Mr.. Wallace
drew this conclusion:
THE Reconstruction Finance
Corp. thus held up the vital quinine
program while it objected to the
tone of our letters, mislaid papers,
forgot about offers, and hand
picked its suppliers from the right
kinds of people, instead of making a
desperate fight to buy every pound
of cinchona bark it could locate
from any source whatsoever, re-
gardless OF the financial risks in
Volved."
Mr.. Wallace said there had been
delays in RFC purchases of such
strategic materials as beryl ore, cas-
tor seeds, cobalt, corundum, palm
oil, fax fiber, jute, sisal, tantalite,
chromium and fats and oils. On fats
and oils, the Vice President COM
mented:
For all practical purposes, how
ever, virtually nothing was done by
Mr.. Jones to build a Government
stockpile of fats and oils even after
Pearl Harpor, when the JapS were
conouering the Far East from which
we had been getting tremendous
supplies"
RFC Rear Guard Action.
Since February, 1913, Mr.. Wallace
said, BEW had been negotiating and
drafting all imported materials con-
tracts, getting them executed by
sellers, then sending them to the
RFC subsidiaries for execution. This
procedure, he said, was established
to eliminate delay and confusion.
Those purposes have been in
large measure accomplished" Mr..
Wallace said, "but only in the face
of an exasperating rear guard action
by Reconstruction Finance Corp. Of
fcials who are still fighting the war
with peacetime red tape, corporate
technicalities, and with what seems
to us to be an unnecessary caution
AS typical illustrations of delays,
Mr.. Wallace cited these tactics" OF
the Metals Reserve Co., RF'C sub
sidiary, during the last four months:
Took four weeks to execute a
group of three metal contracts
drafted by the BEW which the SELL
ers had executed and returned
within four days.
Held a copper contract for five
weeks because one letter had been
left out of one unimportant word
and because two minor clauses
could have been more clearly
stated (The seller had supplied
the missing letter and had found
no difficulty in understanding the
two clausesD
Wrote three letters to the BEW
complaining because a form recital
clause (without legal effect) re-
ferred to the Board of Economic
Warfare's direction that the con-
tract be entered into. "a similar
reference to the War Production
Board had always been included by
the Reconstruction Finance Corp.
draftsmen)
Demanded Two Contracts.
Demanded that a simple 5-ton
wash sale contract for tantallte be
broken up into two contracts-sc
that RFC attorneys might draft one
of the two. The wash sale technique
was used on this small-lot order tc
provide Government ownership
while in transit, as it was necessary
to ship the goods by air and the Air
Transport Command carried only
Government-oWned materials.
Refused to sign contract with
Nigerian tantalite producer before
the producer signed it-even though
the alternative meant a three-week
delay in getting new mines into pro-
duction.
Refused, on a legal technicality
to honor a, directive authorizing the
loan or rental of equipment to the
Brazilian government because OF
information from government rep
resentatives in Rio de Janeiro, re-
ceived subsequent to our directive
that the equipment would be rented
and not loaned.
Held a Brazilian tantalite con-
tract for four weeks because it had
been entered into without a formal
approval required by the Secretary
of Commerce"
utterly Inexcusable."
Mr.. Wallace commented, "All this
I want to emphasize, is bureaucracy
at its worst; it is utterly inexcusable
in nation at war"
He proposed, 1T seems to me that
i tn TAF