Send for the British

In landlocked, miles-high Bolivia, railroads are the main arteries of commerce and communication. Peasants from remote Andean villages carry their produce by train. Almost all of Bolivia's tungsten and tin ore--the nation's most important export commodities--goes by railroad from the mountain mines to the Chilean port of Antofagasta on the Pacific. Without the railroads, Bolivia would find it difficult to exist as a unified nation.

Until 1959, some 800 miles of the country's 1,915 miles of routes were owned and operated by the British companies.

Despite government interference and strikes by Bolivian railroad unions, the British managed to keep their trains on time, but never managed to turn a profit.

Finally, fed up with labor harassment and the government's refusal to allow higher fares, the British pulled out. The Bolivians set out to run the trains themselves.

Last week, after three years of government operation, the railroads were back under British management. Every month that the government ran the lines cost the treasury an estimated $300,000 deficit.

Ore shipments were weeks late at the Pacific docks, and emergency shipments of mining machinery and oilrig parts to the interior rusted away for months on some forgotten side spur. Accidents were commonplace as poorly maintained tracks wobbled and fell apart.

Early this year, Bolivia called for help from the reluctant British. Fortnight ago, a two-year contract was signed with the Bolivia Railway Co. to take over the management of the nearly ruined railroads.

The government received a $2,000,000 grant from the U.S. to buy much-needed new equipment. But even the efficient British may find it hard to get things back on the track. Said one British staffer: "Out of 63 locomotives we had three years ago, only 14 are now serviceable."

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