Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-02-22

the little town of Hit, in what was
the Turkish vilayet, or province,
of Mosul, in Northern Mesopo-
tamia, where bituminous seepageS
had been known since time i'm
memorial. In fact, Noah is be-
lieved to have used the stuff to
caulk his ark, and, at any rate,
the local Bedouins had for ages
treated with it the skin ailments
of their camels. But it took the
great oil discoveries of Pennsyl-
vania and Baku, and the appear
ance of automobiles on the worlds
roads to create q scramble for
what soon came to be known as
black gold.
Finally-just as World War I
was about to start-the main con-
testantS agreed to share what by
then was called Mosul Oil. A new
company, Turkish Petroleum, was
founded, and the Germans, repre-
sented by Deutsche Bank, and
Shell Oil Co., received one-quarter
interest in it each. The powerful
Anglo-Persian Oil Co., in which
the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Mr.. Winston Churchill, had
bought a So per cent interest on
behalf of the Royal Navy, got the
remaining half. But a 5 per cent
nen-voting interest, to be collected
from the other parts, was awarded
to CalouSte Gulbenkian, the Ar
menian middle-man who had
brought about the compromise.
When Turkey ranged herself on
the side of the Central Powers,
Germans took over the direction
of the enterprise and rushed to
Mosul the most modern oil ma
chinery. 1t arrived just in time
for the British Army, which had
advanced into the area and had
brought petroleum specialists
along, to uncrate it and start
processing the crude oil.
And very much the same story
occurred on the Baghdad Railway.
The Germans had built all but
the last 300 miles, and the British
who inherited it quickly finished
it and ran the first train to Ku-
wait, which, meanwhile, had be-
come an independent sheikdom
under British protection -.
Germany Is the Loser
Thus, when the smoke cleared
from the battlefields OF the great
war Germany was shorn OF her
investments and concessions in
the Near Orient.
After the war ended in 1918,
the claims OF French Premier
Clemenceau and American inter-
ests limited the British gam
from the conquest. For not only
had they to yield the German Is
per cent to the Compagnie Fran
caiSe DIES Petroles, but they were
also obliged to fork over another
rs per cent, taken from the Anglo
Persian Co. S part, to an American
consortium formed by Standard
Oil of New Jersey and Socony
Vacuum Co. This is without for
getting, of course, the 5 per cent
of the investments and Partici-
pationS, Ltd; of Calouste Gull
benkian-by now living in Portu-
gal and collecting art-WhoSe in
vestmentS had been in ideas and
suggestions, but whose participa-
tons had to be strictly on cash
basis.
Germany tried to re-enter the
field in 194l. In the spring of
that year-World War II was
then raging-signals were flashed
to the pro-German Premier in
Iraq, RaShid Ali AL Gallant, and
German paratroopers, flown in
from Crete, began descending from
the skies into the palm groves on
the banks of the TigriS and the
Euphrates. Thereupon an en-
boldened Arab army of 5000 men
and so cannon attacked the 1900
British airmen and infantrymen-
and no cannon-on the Habbanyia
airfield, outside Baghdad. A fierce
battle began, with German REIN
forcementS flown from Greece and
British ones from Egypt. In the
end, the British won, The cream
of the Nazi paratroopers, includ-
ing the only son Of Field Marshal