PERSIAN OIL FOR JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27051, 28 May 1953, Page 9

PERSIAN OIL FOR JAPAN

Purchase Ruled Legal

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) TOKYO, May 27. The Tokyo District Court today rejected an appeal by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company for an injunction to prohibit the Idemitsu Kosan OU Company, Japan, from importing Persian oil.

The judge’s decision means the Idemitsu company has won the right to dispose of 18,000 tons of oil brought from Persia by the company’s tanker, Nissho Maru.

The president of the Idemitsu company had promised it would not dispose of the oil pending the court’s decision. The oil had been pumped into storage tanks near Tokyo and the Nissho Maru has returned to Abadan to pick up a second cargo. The Anglo-Iranian company sought possession of the oil on the ground that it was “stolen goods.” It main-

tained that the purchase of the oil from Persia, where the industry has been nationalised, was illegal. Siupming up, the judge said the agreement betwen the Anglo-Iranian company and the Persian Government was in the nature of a private agreement. Therefore, it lost force when the nationalisation law began to operate because nationalisation was “a national measure which has preference over private agreements.” The Anglo-Iranian company’s legal representative announced later that he would file an appeal to a higher court.