Oil for Adventurers?
The question of the shipment of oil from Persia in American tankers is certainly important enough to be discussed once again by Mr. Eden and Mr. Acheson When they meet in Paris. It is easy to see why certain American firms keep coming back to the tempting bait which is Persian oil, and why the United States Government should grow weary of driving them away. The oil is plentiful and it could be cheap. The dispute between a stubborn Persian Government and a stiff-necked oil company must be very irritating to the American oil man who sees potential profits going to waste. Perhaps in the circumstances the British Foreign Office was right to describe as " helpful " the American State Department's warning to American nationals and firms who are thinking of buying oil from Persia that " The legal risks involved are matters to be resolved by the individuals or firms concerned." But whatever the Foreign Office may think about it, the rest of the American statement amounts to carte blanche for any American shipper who wishes to risk buying from the Persian Government oil which does not belong to it. It will not help the Persian Government very much, it will injure the interest of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company, the British Government will not like it, and tankers which succeed in loading some oil may have it impounded when they touch port. But the State Department, which is not ignorant of these things, washes its hands of the business. Whether American firms will be discouraged by this is doubtful. After all, has not M?. Alton Jones—who is a very big man in the oil world—been to Persia, and has he not said that he sees no reason why any shipper bringing out oil should have undue trouble ? Apparently Mr. Jones thought that either the A.I.O.C. would do nothing about it, or that it could be squared. And, for the rest, there is always the com- forting consideration that such American firms as feel it worth while to take the risk of. loading oil illegally at Abadan will only be little ones—at any rate until the big ones also find it worth their while.
