ONLY TWO PER CENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12659, 20 January 1927, Page 8

ONLY TWO PER CENT.

OIL SUPPLY WITHIN EMPIRE BUT BRITAIN CONTROLS PERSIAN FIELD FORESIGHT COMMENDED Ey Telegraph.—Pres. Assn —Copyrißlii. Australian nnrl N.Z. Cable Association (Received January 19, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. Sir John Gadman, speaking on oil from the Empire viewpoint at a luncheon given by the Royal Colonial Institute, lamented the fact that only 2 per cent, of the world’s oil supplies came from within the Empire. “But,” he said, “these natural deficiencies are counter-balanced by the enterprise of the Empire’s sons. Public opinion in the future will applaud the foresight of tlio statesmanship, which, finding Britain’s supplies of oil dangerously small, has not hesitated to take a hand in the great centre of supply, and secure control of the Anglo-Persian Company.” ■Ho emphasised the point that tin's was a purely commercial undertaking, and in no way an instrument of the Government', and prophesied that the “ultimate destiny of our coal must be its conversion into oil, petroleum, and gas, leaving a residue of no calorific value.”