PETROLEUM LAWS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1934, Page 5

PETROLEUM LAWS

POSITION IN JAPAN TOKIO FORWARDS REPLY DUTCH AND U.S. INTEREST BIG EXPENSE INVOLVED British Wireless. Rugby, Nov. 9. The reply of the Japanese Government to the recent representations at Tokio by the British Government regarding certain aspects of the new petroleum laws has been forwarded to the Foreign Office, where it is being carefully studied. The British oil companies, whose large interests in the Japanese trade are liable to be adversely affected by the new law, have been informed of the position. Close contact has been maintained throughout with the United States and Netherlands Governments, which on behalf of. their nationals, whose extensive interests are similarly menaced, also made representations to Tokio. Certain aspects of the Japanese petroleum industry law of March 27 were recently the subject of representations at Tokio on behalf of the Governments of the United Kingdom, United States, and Netherlands, the interests of whose nationals are liable to be adversely affected. The main objects of the new law appear to be the accumulation, in the interests of the Japanese Government and at the expense of foreign oil companies, of vast reserves of oil and the encouragement of the oil refining industry in Japan with extensive powers of control over the industry to enable the Japanese Government to fix sales and prices, to determine the quotas of oil imports allotted annually to any given company, to force oil companies to expand their storage plant in case of necessity and to set up refineries in Japan. The principal foreign oil interests concerned are required to incur heavy expenditure in the erection of additional storage tanks and to increase their oil stocks to about three times their preseht volume without receiving- any security that they may be able to recoup themselves for this large expenditure. Indeed, there is no guarantee that after the expenditure has been incurred file Japanse Government, by arbitrarily fixing sales and prices and limiting the quota of trade annually allotted to the companies, may not actually prevent them from so recouping themselves.