AMERICAN OIL SCANDALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19218, 6 January 1926, Page 9

AMERICAN OIL SCANDALS.

GOVERNMENT'S GEEAT WIN. RETURN Or RICH RESERVES. NO COMPENSATION ALLOWED. By Telefc-rnph—Press Association—Copyright. {Received 8.55 p.m.) A. and N.Z. SAN FRANCISCO. Jan. 4. The United States Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a decision giving the Government a sweeping victory in the caso against Edward Doheny in connection with tho oil scandals. The. judgment upholds the decision oi the Los Angeles District Court, which ordered that the Elk Hills oil reserves should be returned to tho Government. Simultaneously the Appellate Court has reversed the Los Angeles decision awarding Doheny approximately £2,400,000 compensation for development of the Elk Hi lis reserves and the construction of storage tanks at Pear] Harbour, Hawaii. In May of last year Judge McCormick, at Los Angeles, decided that the Elk Hills naval oil reserves in California, with a potential value of between and £60,000,000, were obtained hv the PanAmerican Petroleum and Transport Companies. belonging to Edward Doheny. through fraud and conspiracy. The Judge ordered that the reserves should be returned to the Government as the companies were not lawfully entitled to develop them. This was the first suit arising from the oil scandals that had been won by the Government. Doheny then stated that he would appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision.