Evening star., 1944-04-23
Near East Oil Pot BOils

Ill TOl DOllS
American nationals from being
ousted altogether from Saudi
Arabias petroleum golconda.
The reaction of the American oil
industry to the Saudi-Arabian pipe
line was vehement. Charges re-
sounded that the project was de-
signed as an entering wedge toward
Federal seizure of the oil business.
The Petroleum Industry War Coun-
Gil adopted resolution condemning
the enterprise and demanding the
dissolution of the Petroleum Re-
serves Corp.
Cooler heads began to ask why
Government ownership of pipelines
in the United States is accepted by
private industry, while Government
ownership of pipelines in distant
Arabia is denounced with violence.
Government officials pointed out
that the Ickes pipeline would be in
competition with the British pipe
line in which two of the biggest and
most influential of American COM
panies, Standard of New Jersey and
Socony Vacuum, own an interest of
23.75 per cent. The suggestion was
also ventured that American rivals
of California Standard and the
Texas Co. might not be averse to
stirring up agitation with the hope
Of blackjacking their way into a
share of the future Saudi Arabian
bonanza.
According to this view, Standard
OF New Jersey and Socony Vacuum
are compelled to speak, so far as
Middle East oil is concerned, with
the voice not of the United States
but of the British Empire, while the
American oil industry in general Of
fers the strange spectacle of its al
lance with the British government
and the British oil industry in an
effort to coerce the United States
Government into driving King Ibn
Saud out of the American and into
the British camp.
Drag in Zionism.
In view of their acquiescence in
Government-owned pipelines and
gasoline ref1neries at home, the oil
companies soon shifted to more
promising bases of attack. Theyspic-
tured American marines as guard
ing the Ickes pipeline against sabo-
tage, and American armies eventu-
ally serving as a buffer between
Great Britain and Russia in the
Middle East.
Then the explosive Zionist ques-
ton was dragged in. 1t was argued
that the administrators policy
would so strengthen the hands of
the Arabs as to doom the Jewish
national home in Palestine. Gen.
Marshall himself, backed up by let
tiers from Secretaries Hull and Stim-
son, went to Capitol Hill and testi-
fled, on grounds of military security,
against the Wagner Taft Palestine
resolution. This would reaffirm the
1922 Endorsement of the Balfour
declaration by Congress. Protests
arrived from the Parliament of
Iraq and the Emir of Trans-Jordan.
The resolution was pigeonholed.
But President Roosevelt told Zion
ist leaders that the United States
never gave it's approval to the Brit
ish white paper of 1899, which fixed
March 81, 1914, as the date for clos
ing Jewish immigration into Pales-
tine. They were also reminded that
actual immigration since 1899 has
fallen $1,000 short of the five-year
quota of $4,000 set by the white
paper, and that immigrants are free
to enter until the quota is filled.
The proposed American pipeline
was further attacked as another
cause Of dissention between the
British and American Allies. 1t was
declared that the British had sup
piled arms for some of King Ibn
Sauds followers, dispatched a Curl
Gus scientific expedition" into
Saudi-Arabia and also given finan-
cial support to the monarch.
President Roosevelt's decision to
hold a conference on oil and his ap-
pointment of Secretaries Hull and
1ckes as chairman and vice chair
man met with evasive response from
the British government which
showed no disposition to hurry in
nominating its own conferees. FL
nally Undersecretary Stettinius was
sent to London for conversations
with members of the British govern
ment which were to cover "any cur
rent matters that are of interest to
the two governments at this time -
1t is not unfair to presume that one
OF these matters was Persian Gulf
petroleum.
AS this was written, the British
position remained uncertain and
ambiguous. Private oil interests were
flghtlng tooth and nail to assure
British instead of American owner
ship of any new pipelines from the
Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean
But London politicians tended to
welcome American Intervention, and
asked merely whether the United
States was up to 'its old game" of
exacting privileges and shirking re-
sponsibilities. BY responsibilities
they meant American participation
in the military defense of the Mid
die East and American help in
shouldering the onus of the Arab
Jew controversy.
The reply was made that the pro-
posed pipeline, whether controlled
by British or Americans. would be
paid for by the American taxpayer,