PERSIAN OIL FOR JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 9

PERSIAN OIL FOR JAPAN

Legality Contested In Court (NZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.20 p.m.) TOKYO, May 9. Mr Sukezo Idemitsu, president of the Japanese firm which is importing a tanker load of Persian oil, promised in the Tokyo District Court today not to dispose of the oil until the Court gaye a ruling. The ownership of 18,000 tons of Persian oil brought to Kawasaki today by the Nissho Maru is challenged by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which claims that the oil is "stolen goods.” The company is asking for an injunction stopping the Idemitsu Kosan Oil Company from disposing of the oiL Mr V. A. de Becker, the AngloIranian Company’s lawyer, is seeking a ruling that the Nissho Maru’s cargo, loaded at Abadan, should not be unloaded in. Japan. Mr Sukezo Idemitsu said later that the Nissho Maru would sail again for Persia in four or five days to pick up another load of oil.

He said that the company would continue buying Persian oil with the foreign exchange currency already allocated.

Oil dealers said today they feared a petrol war might flare up in Japan if the market was flooded with cheap oil bought at half the international price. Japanese oil companies, which refine crude oil imported from abroad, would suffer badly in such a price war. The District Court, which heard the oil case adjourned until May 16 so that both parties could produce more evidence. Mr de Becker agreed that the Idemitsu company might unload oil from the Nissho Maru into storage to prevent the danger of fire, provided that the company reported to the Court the quantity and quality of the oil removed and produced a certificate from the customs.

ATOM TEST IN NEVADA

Detonation Over Pine Forest NEW YORK, May 8. An atomic bomb nearly twice as powerful as the war-time bombs dropped on Japan was exploded today over the proving ground in Nevada in a test of its effects on military and civilian targets. The detonation formed a bell-shaped cloud similar to that after the Bikini atom blast, but today the bell was filled with dust and sand instead of water and steam. The blast did minor damage to the atom Energy Commission’s laboratory and housing site 10 miles south of the target area. The detonation was directly over a pine forest transplanted to the desert, and set in concrete. The forest showed little effect from the blast, although many trees caught fire. Seven minutes after the blast two jet drone aeroplanes loaded with 30 mice and two monkeys were sent into the atomic cloud by remote control at a height of 25,000 ft. The aeroplanes were manoeuvred by radio inside the cloud, and then brought to a landing at a nearby Air Force base. The monkeys and mice showed signs of severe radiation effects and were destroyed. They will be studied by scientists to learn more about the effects of radiation.

The blast was followed by a military exercise involving 2000 troops, and a large group of staff officers and observers who were stationed miles from the explosion point.