Mauricio Hochschild, German-born Jew, who is one of Bolivia’s three biggest tin magnates, told the Overseas News Agency today that he would cooperate only with the United States in the development of the mines which American defense chiefs hope will furnish this country with sufficient quantities of the “critical mineral.”
Hochschild was asked to comment on Lima dispatch to the New York Times which said the Germans were seeking to wrest control of the Bolivian tin industry from the United States and that the German Legation in La Paz reportedly had instruction to do favors for Hochschild, despite Nazi anti-Jewish doctrines, to try to keep him from supporting the United States tin program.
“I will have nothing to do with them,” Hochschild said. “I have never had anything to do with their diplomats or agents, and I never will. I am going to work only with the United States.”
He added that the Nazis had been unable to bring any effective pressure to bear on him since he removed his family from Germany several years ago. He has lived in Bolivia ten years.
The tin magnate was here to confer with State Department and R.F.C. officials on the Bolivian tin situation. He described his talks as “very satisfactory” and left by plane for La Paz this afternoon saying he hoped to return shortly to conclude an agreement with the United States Government to insure that Bolivia’s tin supplies would go to the United States.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
