The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-08-08

The United States and Great Britain are just concluding the first agreement aimed to remove the danger of war-an agreement on oil.
 Oil is one of the most ticklish economic subjects in the world. Oil is what makes the nations batleships move, runs the automo- biles, sends the planes into the air - in fact, spells the dif- terealces between Q nation of strength or a nation which must bow tot he whiIns of others. The present oil agreement seeks to set- tie the battle for oil: eliminates one important cause of war.
 The last war was scarcely over when Great Britain began maneu- vering to corner the oil sup- plies of the world. British leaders were quite frank about it.
 "The British position Is im.
 pregnnhle." said Eir Edward
 Maekay Edgar, British petroI- leHm banker. @An the known ell fields, all the likely CT prob- able oil fields, outside ef the
 United states itself. are in Bri- tiSh hands or under British management CT control. CT G. naneed by British capital"
 E. c. Pretyman. member of Parliament and former Civil Lord of the AdmEiralty. was equally frank. "When the war came" he said. "the British Government controlled about two per cent of the worlds petroleum supplies -. Nov. when adjustments are eom- pleted, the British Empire will not be very far from controlling one-half of the available supplies of petroeum in the world"
 UNITER STATES PROTESTS
 Finding itself in this position, the United States Government Jumped into the battle for oil with vigor, The Secretary of State. Charles Evans Hughes, wrote a series of blunt. bare-gaeed notes to the British, wanting to know why thtey barred American oil companies from Palestine, since Palestine was not British but merely mandated to the British by the League,
 Hughes was equally peremptoFy over the barring of U s. eom- panles from Burma and the Dutch East Indies, Feelings were aroused on both sides, It was not happy situation,
 Meanwhile, the British, though
 NhaFrlng the U, R, fFem their areas Of interest, quietly iRVad- ed CUTS, They tugnad pD witb
 concessions in Colombia, Heg
 taT from the Panama Canal.
 Eve ain Panama prepeF, . BFi- ush geld'mlnlng company staked eug 8 huge and snsDleiaus claim
 ln sN area where nc geld gas
 kn0wp Q exist,
 Thus nntil about the time the East Texas oil fields came in, al- leYlatlng our immediate worries oyer the diminishing supply of oil, that precious black commodity was our ehieG source 0f friction with z nation which had recently been our valiant ally ln the war, HISTORY bEGlkR T0 REPEAT
 ID World War U, history al first began 70 repeat, The five senators who tnred the world war fronts came back wlthl be story of how the U, s, 4, Was rapidly des plellng heg oil reserves while the British were trying 10 keep ns from Gurlheg developing 0iD re, British had 2 refinery 0D the Gull 0l Persia, 70 per cent idle, while We shipped 0ll clear across the Atlantic to British armies N the Near East,
 Yes, C lssksd ss M histsVy
 wenld Tppaal,
 On last April 2D, however, Teps TesentatiYes of the British and the American Governments negotiated aO inl0gmad understanding 0lmea 10 eliminate the 0il battles Of the future, v vas an excellent, lHTs sighted agreement, And dnTs lng the last two weeks in Washs lngl0n, Lord BeaVeThro0k and his associates have been negotiating with Secretaries Iekas and Hull t0 Inakelhis informed en agreement formal and binding, This time, the British have been far more COG operative and GaH-sighEed than ln lele-wlth one possible exception, humble, meek, and sincere. if you