SOVIET DESPERATE

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17221, 3 October 1927, Page 5

SOVIET DESPERATE

BAN ON PETROL SALES.

SIR H. DETERDSNG'S STATEMENT.

" The conscience of the whole world is being roused against the handling of petrol from British oilfields in Russia stolen by the Soviet, and observers who have recently returned from Moscow assure me that the farce in Russia cannot go on much longer." This declaration was made by Sir Henri Dctcrding, head of the Royal Dutch Oil Company and a director of the Shell Transport and Trading Company to-a reporter.

"An American friend of mine who visited Moscow to discover the truth of the position told me that the Soviet is so desperately in need of credit Lhat even the sale of stolen petrol, which is its last desperate effort, cannot keep the regime going for more than two years.

"Now that the great oil companies are closing up this avenue—and I do not think any reputable companies will continue to handle the stolen petrol—its plight is becoming more desperate, and the lies that are being officially circulated by it arc evidence lhat it is clutching at any straw.

"it has said that I have tried to obtain a monopoly of Soviet oil—which is untrue—but it does not disclose that in the negotiations in which my group was only an interested party (very far from even 50 per cent.) ihrce conditions were sine qua non: (1) Indemnification of the previous owners; (2) no sale need be effected by sellers if the oil should afterwards be wanted for internal consumption, for which there was to be no indemnity; and (3) no advances and/or credits to be given by any of the parties. Those arc the facts.

/Money fop Propaganda

"As long ago as the Sofia Cathedral bomb outrage (in April 1925) I was endeavouring to persuade the great oil concerns of the world not to handle the stolen petrol which was being used for subversive activities throughout the world. I wrote to Mr Rockefeller pointing out that those who handled this petrol were providing the Soviet with the means to carry on its policy of disorganising society. "That this is the case is proved by the statistics of production and sale of oil in Russia. Before the war the average oil production was 6,418,000 tons a year, of which only 735,000 tons was exported. Now for the three years 1921-5-G the average production has fallen to 5,220,000 tons, while the exports have increased to .1,298,000 tons, leaving only 3,928,000 tons for home consumption. This is evidence that the Russian peasants are being deprived of light and fuel so that the money may be obtained for propaganda.