CHILE: Ebasco v. Ibanez

President Carlos Ibañez went out to battle last week with the multilateral Electric Bond and Share Company (Ebasco) of New York. He did not win, but he made an effective gesture.

In 1928 omnipotent Ebasco bought concessions from London's Whitehall Investment Co. to operate tramways and provide light and power for the Santiago-Valparaiso territory. Contract and concessions disappeared into a twilight world of lawyers, politicians and congressional committees. Last week, curiously emended, they reappeared on the desk of President Ibañez. Instead of being limited to city lights and trolleys, the contract is now designed to embrace practically all the light and power in the Republic of Chile.

Most important, the contract was extended for 99 years, during which time the Government would have no power of recapture over Ebasco. President Ibañez swore that he would chop off his own right hand rather than sign the contract as it appeared now.

The Compañía Chileña de Electricidad, Limitada, local subsidiary of Ebasco, returned a soft answer. In an open letter to Santiago's three most important papers they wrote that they were surprised and shocked at President Ibañez's protest, the more so since the power contract in every stage of its development had been inspected and approved by congressional and technical commissions "composed of Chileans of high repute," finally that it had been enthusiastically approved by none other than Señor Francisco Lobos, Director of the Electrical Services of the Republic. However, they had ever the best interests of the country at heart, and if President Ibañez felt the way he did, they would consider the drafted contract null and void, try to frame another that would more fully meet "public approval."

Ebasco could afford to be polite. It knew, and President Ibañez knew that there was not another corporation in Chile capable of providing the electrical service which growing Chile had to have, that if the President would not sign this contract he would have to sign another very much like it. President Ibañez in revenge demanded and obtained the dismissal of Electrical Director Lobos, and the matter passed.