Treaty Not Alliance

Northern Advocate, 3 June 1947, Page 5

Treaty Not Alliance

(11.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, June 2. The Under-Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson) testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today, denied that the proposed AngloAmerican oil treaty constituted either a cartel or alliance.

The committee has just opened hearings on the pact which has lain in a Congressional pigeon-hole for nearly two years. The Senate must ratify the treaty by a two-thirds majority. Mr Acheson urged ratification because “it would dispel mutual suspicion and distrust and establish rules and regulations between Britain anc the United States. It is not an alliance between those countries to protect their interests against the remainder of the world.” Mr Acheson pointed out that Britain and America were rivals in most ol the wqrld’s oil areas and if they could agree it would be much easier tc negotiate an international pact. FORM COMMISSION? The treaty envisages the establishment of a petroleum commission consisting of three members from each country to aid the development of oil resources and techniques and also provides as soon as practicable that the two governments should propose to all interested oil prcducting and consuming nations the negotiation of an international petroleum agreement and the establishment of a permanent international petroleum council. The Foreign Relations Committee rejected an earlier Anglo-American oil treaty in 1945 and the new pact which is now the subject of the hearing, was negotiated with major American oil interests represented on the American delegation. OIL IN SYRIA Prospectors have struck oil a few feet below the surface one and a half miles from Latakia, reports Reuters correspondent in Damascus.

The first analysis shows a high l'uef production ratio. Reports from other prospecting Syria Petroleum Company has made areas in Northern Syria state that the a rich strike in the Kurdeh area. The company is beginning drilling immediately. Reports of prospecting from various parts of Syria suggest that the vast subterranean oil ocean underlying (he Arabian-Irak peninsula might extend into Syria.