OIL LEASE SCANDALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19965, 6 December 1926, Page 10

OIL LEASE SCANDALS

PROTEST FROM JAPAN. OLD CONTROVERSY REVIVED. WASHINGTON. November 25. Newspapers here give prominence to cable messages from Tokio, stating 'that the Japanese Government will seriously protest against being dragged into the prosecution of the oil magnate, E. L. Doheny, and the ex-Secretary of fie Interior, A. B. Fall, as a sequel to the scandal over the oil leases. While no official note has been sent, still Tokio argues that, as the relations between America and Japan are so good, why should the former stir up the dead bones of this old controversy? Japan’s have been hurt by the statements of Fra" 1 - counsel, that the whole motive for the lease being granti then Minister, Fall, was the American Government’s uneasiness over the unprotected Pacific coast, the knowledge it had regarding Japan’s mobilisation plans, and the necessity for putting oil where it could be used in an emergency. Hogan has argued that Doheny and Fall were so patriotic that they should have received medals instead of summonses. According to the prosecution, Doheny’s prospectuses set out that a profit of £20,000,000 was expected from the Elk Hills reserve. The Government Prosecutor to-day asked the Secretary for the Navy, Mr Curtis Wilbur, to produce the official records in connection with the Japanese war scare of 1921 and 1922. Mr Wilbur said he would submit these records to a secret session of the jury.