OIL MILLIONAIRE DEAD

Southland Times, Issue 23735, 6 February 1939, Page 7

OIL MILLIONAIRE DEAD

SIR HENRI DETERDING BRITISH NAVY SUPPLIED DURING WAR (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received February 5, 7.10 p.m.) THE HAGUE, February 4. The death occurred suddenly today of Sir Henri Deterding, the oil magnate who supplied the British Navy with oil during the Great War.

Sir Henri Deterding was bom at Rotterdam in August 1866. He was the fourth son of a sea captain. From 1882 to 1888 he was a clerk in the Tweentsche Bank. He then entered the service of the Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappy, being stationed in Sumatra. Later he became manager of the firm’s Penang branch. It was then that the oil industry began to develop in Sumatra. Its pioneer, Kessler, In 1896 induced Deterding to join the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroletun (the Royal Dutch). After Kessler’s death Deterding became its chairman on Kessler’s instructions. In 1901 he succeeded in bringing about a combine of all the oil concerns in the Far East and in 1903 a common selling concern, the Asiatic Petroleum Company, of which he was chairman, was started. In his struggle with Rockefeller and Standard Oil Deterding enlisted the co-

operation of Marcus Samuel (later Lord Bearsted) then an importer of shells. Thus the Shell Transport Company became part of the great Royal Dutch-Shell combine. Rockefeller flooded Asia with oil sold far below cost and gave away 8,000,000 lamps, but in them the Chinese burned Deterding’s oil. Later he defeated Standard Oil in Mesopotamia, held his ground in Europe and secured a firm hold on the immense oil resources of Venezuela, as well as interests in the Caucasus, Rumania, Egypt, Central America and even the United States. In 1903 he had the financial backing of the Rothschilds in his fight with Standard Oil. Deterding became known to Admiral Lord Fisher, who described him as “Napoleonic in boldness and Cromwellian in depth.’’ He secured the contract for the supply of the entire British Navy with oil, with the consequence that his interests became linked up with those of Britain. During the war he organized the supply of oil and petrol so excellently that the Allies "swam in oil” and Lord Curzon after the Armistice declared that -they had been - swept to victory on a wave of oil. Deterding had moved to England during the conflict and became naturalized. His services were rewarded with a knighthood. He then acted as adviser to the British Government on oil at the conferences of San Remo, Genoa, Lausanne, London and Geneva, and played an important part in the Mosul question. The Iraq concessions were a feather in his cap. From 1921 onwards he was engaged in a dispute with Russian oil interests; demanding compensation for preRevolution oil properties. Early in 1926 he took strong measures to prevent the sale of Russian oil, which he succeeded in excluding from France, where he secured the contract for the supply of the army and navy. Sir Henri was a director of more than 59 companies, including the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company and Bataafsche Petroleum, the chief one of course being the Royal Dutch with a capital of about £50,000,000. His combine controlled the bulk of the world’s oil tanker tonnage and had 45 re, fineries in 25 countries. But in spite of its largely British directorates the ultimate management of the huge concern remained ,in Dutch hands. In 1935 Sir Henri offered 2000 of his employees and their wives a chance of travelling free of charge in Europe during their summer holidays, his object being to broaden their outlook. In 1924 he married as his second wife a daughter of the Russian general Paul Koudayaroff. They had two daughters. He secured a divorce in May 1936, and in June he married his German secretary, Charlotte Knaack, aged 38. Sir Henri’s fortune was said to be £65,000,000. He had a house in Park Lane, London, a country seat near Ascot and estates in Holland and Germany, and he travelled incessantly.