Text Version


     The United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate 
 
quantities. There is some good ore in Canada and the former Czechoslovakia, 
 
while the most important source of uranium is Belgian Congo.
 
     In view of this situation you may think it desirable to have some 
 
permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group 
 
of physicists working on chain reactions in America. One possible way 
 
of achieving this might be for you to entrust with this task a person 
 
who has your confidence and who could perhaps serve in an inofficial 
 
capacity. His task might comprise the following:
 
         a) to approach Government Departments, keep them informed of the 
 
further development, and put forward recommendations for Government action, 
 
giving particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uran-
 
ium ore for the United States;
 
         b) to speed up the experimental work,which is at present being car-
 
ried on within the limits of the budgets of University laboratories, by 
 
providing funds, if such funds be required, through his contacts with 
 
private persons who are willing to make contributions for this cause, 
 
and perhaps also by obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories 
 
which have the necessary equipment.
 
          I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium 
 
from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should 
 
have taken such early action might perhaps be understood on the ground 
 
that the son of the German Under-Secretary of State, von Weizsacker, is 
 
attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin where some of the 
 
American work on uranium is now being repeated.
 
                              Yours very truly,
 
                              (Albert Einstein)
 
 
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