Evening star., 1948-01-05
1000 Barrels Of Oil
Given Greece Daily
Under Aid Program

Under Aid Program
| BY the Assoeiotsd Press
Greece Is getting 1000 barrels OF
petroleum daily from military
sources under the United States aid
program-about a third of her re-
quirements, a member of the Army
Navy Petroleum Board calculated
today.
Col. G. H. Vogel, executive officer
of the board, made the estimate in
response to questions from Chair
man Wherry of Senate small busi-
ness subcommittee on oil. Col. Vogel
said the 1000 is part of our over
all military requirements of 342. 800
barrels day of all types Of oil prod
ucts for all services and occupied
areas for civilian use.
The committee Is seeking infor-
nation on the amount of domestic
petroleum, particularly fuel oil, be-
ing used for export. through both
private trade channels and under
the Government foreign aid pro-
grams.
To. Ask Industry Probe.
Outside the hearing, Senator
Johnston, Democrat, of South Caro-
lima announced he will ask Con-
gress for an investigation of the
oil industry at once Ito see If there
is violation of the antitrust laws in
regard to fuel OIL"
1T looks like the big oil COM
panies are holding oil of the mar
ket SO the people will be scared
and they can run prices up" Sena-
tor Johnston told reporter. 1T
looks like there's q squeeze play
going on to hurt the small inde-
pendent oil dealers.
If the big companies are doing
this-as indicated in my State -
prosecutions are in order"
Senator Johnston said the Justice
Department is checking on storage
and distribution of fuel oil at his
request. He said he will introduce
his investigation resolution tomor-
row.
Price Cut Is Urged.
Fuel oil is critically short in some
parts of the country and earlier
today Senator Flanders. Republican,
of Vermont appealed to the oil in
dustry for an "appreciable" cut In
prices as one means Of helping out
the consumers.
Col. Vogel told the committee that
shipments to Greece began after
urgent kilograms" arrived in this
country from the United States
mission saying that Greek sources
were unable to furnished the petro-
leum required. -
sDid you have anything to say
about it?" Senator Wherry in
quired.
Col. Vogel replied that the board
ala rot and that 1t was merely
carrying out the program given to
1t by the State Department. The
board itself is an agency of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and serves
primarily as a clearing house on
petroleum for all Of the Nations
armed services.
In response to other questions by
Senator Wherry, Col. Vogel said
the military had furnished some oil
to foreign nations under the UNRRA
program and also had made some
emergency" allocations when called
upon.
Military requirements, he said,
amount to a. per cent of the total
crude and natural gasoline products
produced in this country. He added
the peak was 50 per cent during
World War II. ...
Col. Vogel acknowledged there
had been an increase in military
requirements during the last few
months. Part of this he attributed
to increased civilian needs in the
occupied areas which had formerly
been supplied by Great Britain.
Among scheduled witnesses before
the committee are Undersecretary
of State Lovett, Assistant Secretary
of Commerce David K. E. Bruce
and Capt. Ralph E. Wilson of the
Army-Navy Petroleum Board and
Max Ball, director of the Interior
Departments oil and gas division.
Senator Flanders wrote William
r. Boyd, jr, president of the Ameri-
can Petroleum Institute, urging that
you bring to the attention of your
members the desirability Of arrest
ing further price advances in this
necessary commodity (fuel OLD and,
If at all possible, making an appre-
ciable decrease In the price at an
early date"
Called Major Contribution"
The Senator said a price cut
would make "a major contribution
toward arresting the rise in the
cost of living and checking an
otherwise uncontrolled imitation"
He added:
IF Congress can do something
about meat prices and II you and
other great industries can make
some contribution to other elements
in the cost of living, then it will be
reasonable to expect labor organi-
cations to act on their long-range
interests and withdraw the proposed
requests for wage increases"
Senator Flanders said he real
ICES that the industry is paying
more for crude oil, for labor and
transportation, and that it has ad-
ditional expense in developing new
oil fields.
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