Evening star., 1925-07-01
FEAR OF HUGE WAR
LED TO OIL. LEASE,
DECLARES DOHENY
Says He Acted Only After
Admr. Robson Convinced
Him of Pacific Menace.
TOLD FOREIGN WARSHIPS
WERE READY TO ACT
Hawaiian Base Declared Sole De-
pendence of Navy-Divulges
Military Secret"
by the Associated Press

NEW YORK. July THE New
York Times today publishes copy
right interview. in which Edward L..
Doheny. giving his own story of the
naval oil leases. disCloses what he in
dicates has been regarded hitherto as
a great military secret.
Speaking at Los Angeles to a staff
correspondent against the advice OF
counsel, the Times says. Mr.. Doheny
declared that there never would have
been an Elk Hills lease nor would
his company have undertaken the con-
struction of the Pearl Harbor naval
oil base had not Rear Admiral John
h. Robson, chief OF the Naval Bureau
of Engineering in Washington, con-
WINGED him that a great war in the
Pacific threatened the United States
In 1921, and that the proposed Hawai-
ian oil base was the one link In the
national defensive chain on which de-
pended victory or defeat for the
United States.
Mr.. Doheny will go to trial in
Washington in October on charge
OF criminal conspiracy with Albert b.
Fall, former Secretary of the Interior,
in connection with the Elk Hills oil
lease, which the Government. in the
Los Angeles Federal Court, has sue
ceeded in invalidating.
Barred as Evidence.
The story of naval officers fears of
war in the Pacific, Mr.. Doheny says,
was contained in a deposition by Ad
miral Robson put in evidence on the
trial of the suits to annul the Teapot
Dome and Elk Hill leases, but the
portion relating to the military secret
was stricken out.
In this connection Secretary Will
bur, subpoenaed to produce certain
documents, sent a certificate that 1t
would be against the national interest
TO dc so, Mr.. Doheny said. He called
attention to remarks by Judge Ken
nedy in the Teapot Dome decision
that there was no further need of
secrecy. s.stSss ess-s --s4-a =.
Robson recalled to my mind the
horrors of the invasion Of Belgium"
Mr.. DohUy said. with a force /
shall never forget he asked me to
visualize the results of even a tenn
porary Oriental invasion of the Pa
cifie coast of the United States. He
dwelt on how much worse, how much
more horriable, how much more to be
dreaded was an Oriental invasion than
even the worst horrors of the German
invasion
He even startled me with informa-
tion regarding orders which had been
given to foreign war vessels and even
to merchant ships in the Pacific for
their mobilization on incredibly short
notice. He pointed out that modern
warfare had reduced the efficiency of
coast defenses so that they were no
longer to be relied upon. He told me
that in an attack upon this country
of ours by navy in the Pacific de-
feat was sure to come to our fleet un-
less there was an adequate naval oil
reserve in Hawaii.
Says Pacific Power Is Ready.
He said that every responsible Of
ficer of the Navy in Washington had
received confidential bulletins which
disclosed that the oil reserves of
great naval power in the Pacific were
adequate for war. He called my at
tention to the fact that there still
existed a we'll known alliance between
this great Pacific nation and the most
powerful naval nation of the world"
Mr. Doheny said that every one
who had been informed of this stu
alton had been warned of its highly
confidential and secret character be
cause of fear that the arms con-
ference, then in session at Wash
ington, might be wrecked by revela-
tion of plans for a naval base in
Hawaii.
Mr.. Doheny further discloses. the
Times says, that the famous eXecu
tive order of President Harding
which gave the Interior Department.
under Mr.. Fall. administrative powers
involving the naval oil reserves, was
suggested not by Mr.. Fall, but by
the then Secretary of the Navy
DENLY. that the war fear of Navy
officers had been communicated to
Secretary DENLY; who brought up the
matter of joint control In a cabinet
meeting.
Mr.. Doheny was forbidden by coun-
sci to discuss the 100000 loan he
made to Secretary Fall. and the let
ter signed by Mr.. Fall in which the
latter wrote that the loan had been
obtained from Edward 3. Mclean,
publisher of the Washington Post
The Times states it has learned
that a prominent member Of the Re-
publican national committee of 1920
brought the letter to Mr.. Fall in its
completed form and urged the Secre-
tary to sign it Mr.. Fall strongly de-
INJURED. the newspaper says, but the
committeeman argued that an cleo
ton was coming on and those who
conceived the idea of having Mr.. Nc
Lean pose as the lender of the $780,
900 thought that the letter. If signed
and MADE pubic before the Senate
committee. would clear the political
atmosphere.
Contract Made by Navy.
Mr.. Fall, the newspaper asserts,
signed the letter, but not mailing it,
he returned it to the man who
brought it to him. A few hours later
IT was in the hands of Senator Len
root, chairman of the Senate investi-
eating committee. and shortly there
. after it was read into the record of
the committee and given to the press
Counsel for Mr.. Doheny declared
that the Mclean letter episode Is the
one incident in his long friendship
with Mr.. Fall that Mr.. Doheny can
not excuse.
In the inerview Mr.. Doheny
charged that kilograms had disap-
peared mysteriously from the files Of
the Interior Department after the
files had been ranSacked by persons in
the employ of the Senate investigat-
ing committee. He said these tele-
grams would have disclosed that Fall
had no part in making contracts with