TIN AND ZINC

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24555, 10 April 1943, Page 4

TIN AND ZINC

BOLIVIA'S EESOURCES • VALUE TO THE ALLIES The resources of one of the largest producers of tin in the world have been thrown open to the Allies by Bolivia's entry into the war, which was announced this week. The republic's action is the same as that in the last world war, when it came in on the Allied side following on the sinking of a Bolivian ship carrying the Bolivian Minister to Berlin. For many years Bolivia has been one of the largest producers of tin in tho world. The country produces about 15 per cent of the world's supply, the exports in 1938 totalling 25,893 metric tons, and is also an exporter of copper, zinc, antimony, tungsten, gold, silver and crtido rubber. Production ol Antimony The second largest export is zinc, the 1938 figure being 10,704 metric tons, while that for antimony, another mineral important in wartime, was 9255 tons. Since the outbreak of war United States capital has enabled a great deal of developmental work to be done in improving communications. Rubber production is not great. Hindered by a long historv of external and internal trouble, Bolivia has not played a large part in world polities since its separation from Spain in 1825. Of the estimated population of 3,250,000 people more than half are Indians, many of whom have refused to learn the official Spanish. The white population is only about one-eighth of the total, and there is a large proportion of mixed Indian and Spanish blood. Insignificant Defence Forces Local demand alone before the war influenced the supply of petroleum, surface indications of which abound in the whole territory between Argentina, the southern neighbour, and the northwest territory to the border of Peru. The country produced 215,000 barrels of crude oil in 1939, two years after the military Government Junta cancelled the American Standard Oil Company's concession. Bolivia also produces a high-grade cinchona bark, from which quinine is manufactured. Economically. Bolivia has many ties with Great Britain and the United States, the former being its best customer and the United States a very large seller of manufactured goods. The military importance of the country is slight, the permanent army numbering less than 4000 and the air force consisting of 20 machines. The value of the alliance to the anti-Fascist Powers will lie more in the resources of the country, particularly since the loss of Javanese tin, rubber and other strategic products.