PERSIA AND OIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21359, 7 December 1932, Page 10

PERSIA AND OIL

The British Government is shown l>v an official statement to be acutely interested in the situation created by the arbitrary cancelling of the concession the Anglo-Persian Oil Company has held in Persia since 1001, and was entitled to hold until 1961. The Government is concerned in three capacities, as the natural custodian of commercial rights legitimately held by British subjects in foreign countries, as shareholder with a large interest in the company, and as party to the contracts the company has made with the Admiralty for the supply of oil fuel. The circumstances in which the Government acquired Anglo-Persian shares resemble in a certain degree those in which it obtained its holding in the Suez Canal Company. They were less dramatic, and coming as they did just before the out break of the war, did not attract as much attention as they otherwise might have. The facts were briefly that the company needed more capital for further development work. Mr. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, saw the opportunity and persuaded first the Government, then Parliament, to agree to the purchase of a substantial interest in it, carrying the right to appoint a number of directors. One of the most important assets of the enterprise is the pipe-line from the wells to the refinery at Abadan, on the sea, a distance of 145 miles. The line was duplicated early in 1914 as a part of the expansion made possible by the deal with the Government. The strategic importance of this oil supply is illustrated by the fact that almost immediately after war was declared against Turkey in 1914, operations were begun in Irak, or Mesopotamia as it was then called. Embarkation on

this campaign has been criticised. The official reasons in explanation and defence of what was done arc headed by the declaration that the need to protect the oil pipe-line and other plant of the Anglo-Persian Company made it imperative. If protection in war was so vital, maintenance of the concession is equally important now, especially since the Navy has. come to rely even more heavily on oil fuel than it did in 1914. For these reasons it can be taken as certain the Government will do all that has been promised toward removing the present deadlock between the company and Persia.