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Show MAY TAKE FUEL OIL INDUSTRY OF COAST Californians Given Two Weeks in Which to Agree With Government. WASHINGTON, April 27. Mark Re-qua, Re-qua, fuel oil administrator, today served notice on attorneys for claimants claim-ants of oil rights in naval reserve No. 2 in California that unless they could agree with the government before two weeks on a hill to permit production in the reserve to begin immediately, he wOuld recommend to the president to commandeer the laud and have the litigation liti-gation settled later. Bernard M. Baruch, chairman of the war industries board, who was present at the conference,, said that if such a step became necessary, ho would suggest sug-gest that the entire fuel oil industry of the Pacific coast be taken over by' the government. Secretary Daniels previously stated W's willingness to open the reserves to production if a suitable bill could be agreed upon to protect the interests of the 'government and those of persons legally entitled to leases in the 32,000 dv-Tcs. regarded as the richest remaining tract of undeveloped oil land in the wqrld. The only alternative to legislation legisla-tion is for the president to take over the-.land under the Lever act and begin production as a national necessity. . Further conferences will be held next ! I week between attorneys for the litigants and representatives of the fuel administration admin-istration in an effort to reach an agree-1 agree-1 mht. failing which, it is expected Mr. Requa will take action to increase the output of fuel oil by having the government gov-ernment order production in the naval reserve lands. Mr. Requa and the attorneys for the claimants were brought together by a delegation of Pacific coast newspaper publishers, who said their only interest was to stimulate production of fuel oil sufficiently to overcome the shortage which they asserted was rapidly approaching ap-proaching a famine. Paper-mills on the coast have been threatened with the necessity of closing dowu because of inability in-ability to obtain fuel oil. F. W. KeHogg of San Francisco was spokesman for the publishers. Others in tho delegation included V, S. lie-Clatchy lie-Clatchy of Sacramento, W. H. Cowles of Spokane. S. A. Perkins of Tacoma, Harry Chandler of Los Angeles, H. S. Dav of Wallace. Idaho. M. F. Ihmsen of Los Angeles, Joseph Blethen of Seattle, Scott Bona of Seattle, and John II. Perrv of San Francisco. |