Evening star., 1943-07-07

has not yet opposed us on the much
larger project we have worked out
in Guatemala.
Wild Bark Project Pushed.
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
members of our staff. Even this
work, I am sorry to report, was
held up by Mr.. Jones in the late
summer of 1912. some nine months
after Pearl Harbor.
I want to submit the following
facts:
In February. l943, the BEW. took
over the actual import purchase
negotiations under Order No. 5
which I signed as chairman OF
BEW. Order No. is part of ouI
formal budget presentation. These
negotiations had previously been
handled by the RFC subsidiaries
The 1912 record of RIGS purchases
of circhona bark, under the BENV
directiyes, illustrates why the pro-
cedures were changed in the inter.
est of shortening this war.
Cd On June 10, 1912. the BEW
gave Defense Supplies Corp. a de-
tailed outline Of program for pur-
chasing Latin American cinchona
bark from United States importers
and directed that 1t be put into i'm
mediate effect A checkup five days
later revealed that nothing had been
done; the Federal Loan Administra-
tor had objected to the tone OF
finality" about the letter of June 10
Another week was lost because Mr.
Clayton "has apparently mislaid the
directive and requests another copy.
That's the way the RFC was ham
ding the cinchona program for
uuinine three months after we lost
Bataan.
Commitments Obtained.
(2) The RFC waited one month
to accept an offer of 25 tons: by that
time the particular bark had been
sold to Brazil Another offer for
20 tons was Withdrawn-fve weeks
after it had been made. Those de-
lays meant the loss OF !, 300 ounces
of anti-malarial alkaloids for United
States soldiers fighting in the tropics
In three months the RFC bought
just IS tons of bark. In the follow
ing seven weeks single BEW agent
got firm commitments for $50 tons
for immediate shipment, 1900 more
for future delivery. BY this time,
our imports office was better organ
lied than in the Spring of 1912, and
swinging vigorously into action.
80 The Board or Economic War
fare learned that the RFC was get
ting firm offers on cinchona bark
but referring them to professors
with whom the importers were then
haggling about price-while the bark
stayed in Colombia and Ecuador
When the Board of Economic War
fare directed the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. to accept all firm
offers, the Reconstruction FINANCE
Corp. responded by calling two
meetings, each after another Today
delay. Then the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. explained its reluc-
tance; it didn't want to take the risk
of financial loss involved in dealing
with unknown and possibly "irre-
sponsible' suppliers
The Reconstruction Finance Corp
thus held up the vital quinine pro-
gram while it objected to the tone
of our letters, mislaid papers. forgot
about offers, and hand picked its
suppliers from the right kind OF
people," instead Of making des-
perate fight to buy every pound of
cinchona bark it could locate from
any source whatsoever. regardless of
of the financial risks involved.