“SECRET WAR FOR OIL”

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 May 1935, Page 11

“SECRET WAR FOR OIL”

LIBEL ON BRITISH COMPANY. LONDON, April 17. A settlement was announced in the King’s Bench Division yesterday of a libel action by British Controlled Oilfields Ltd., against Messrs George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., of London, publishers, and Messrs Butler and Tanner, Ltd., printers, of Frome, Somerset. The libels complained of were contained in a book entitled “Secret War for Oil.” Sir Patrick Hastings, K.C., for the oilfields company, described the matter as being of grave importance. “The book,” he said, “was partly a novel and partly alleged to be a true record of the world’s struggle in connection with oil. In the foreword it was stated that ‘the book shows that world forces are being manipulated behind the scenes by utterly unscrupulous forces, over which the ordinary citizen has no control.’

“The allegation in the book is that the object of the authors, one of whom is an American and the other a European foreigner, was to show that the British Controlled Oilfields Conu pany was not a genuine trading company in oil; that it was a concern completely controlled by the British Government, and that its objects, in the main, were to acquire large tracts of land in the neighbourhood of the Panama Canal ‘which would be useful to the British Government in the case of suggested war between England and America.’

"The authors go on to say that the position of the shareholders was completely ignored, and they were not allowed to get any. profits out of the company, the reason being that it was the British Government which was controlling it and using it for improper purposes as distinct from those of a real company.” “The true facts,” Sir Patrick continued, “were that the plaintiff company had a capital of millions of pounds and the British shareholders are protected by an arrangement which was made some years ago.

“It is simply and solely a trading oil company. The British Government has no interest whatever in it —or control over it —and every one of the allegations in the book in regard to suggested powers of interference by the British Government is absolutely without any foundation at all.” Mr Harold Murphy expressed the deep regret of the publishers and the printers for the publication, and the record was withdrawn on the terms agreed between the parties.