"Commercial Cannibalism"

When the U.S. Army asked for bids last month to supply 10.7 million lbs. of meat for troops in Germany, the most eager response came from Uruguay. Faced with a slump in the world wool market and harassed by the economic bullying of neighboring Argentina, Uruguay needed additional export business to keep its currency stable.

At the Army's quartermaster office in Chicago, Uruguay's agents offered beef at $27.80 a hundredweight. Several days before the deadline, which was set for noon one day last fortnight, Army buyers assured them that it was the likeliest bid yet received. Taking no chances, Uruguayans in Montevideo phoned their Chicago agents 15 minutes before the deadline, told them to lower the offer to $27.63. That, said the Army, practically settled the deal; Washington would probably confirm it within half an hour.

Washington did not. Instead, at 1:45 p.m., the Army notified Uruguay's agents that the bidding time had been extended until 5. After failing to contact Montevideo, the agents held off further bids. At 5:20, they were shocked to hear that the lowest bidder, with a last minute offer of $27.55, was an Argentine firm. When they again lowered their bid to $27.50 the next morning, the Uruguayans were told that the contract had been awarded.

As the story got around last week, democratic Uruguayans, long among the staunchest friends of the U.S. in South America, broke out in a fit of anti-U.S. rage. Screamed Montevideo's El Diario: "Commercial cannibalism!" Except for sincere but lame assurances that the U.S. had no reason to discriminate, the Army could offer no explanation.

The only plausible explanation was based on the fact that radiotelephone calls between Montevideo and the U.S. are routed through--and often overheard in --Buenos Aires. Somebody in Argentina might have listened to Uruguay's next-to-deadline bid, hastily asked Washington to extend the deadline, then put in the lower bid. After that, something might have delayed all calls between Montevideo and Chicago until the bidding had closed.

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