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Show Washington, D C. U. S-BRITISH OIL ACCORD This column, it should be noted in idvance, is likely to be dull. But if rou are interested in keeping your ion or husband out of another ;war, It should be important. The United States artd Great Brit-lin Brit-lin are just concluding the first agreement aimed to remove the danger of war an agreement on oil. Oil is one of the most ticklish economic eco-nomic subjects in the world. Oil is what makes a nation's battleships move, runs the automobiles, sends the planes into the air in fact, spells the difference between a nation of strength or a nation which must bow to the whims of others. The present oil agreement seeks to settle set-tle the battle for oil; eliminate one Important cause of war. The last war was scarcely over when Great Britain began maneuvering maneu-vering to corner the oil supplies of the world. British leaders were quite frank about it. United States Protests. Finding itself in this position, the United States government jumped Into the battle for oil with vigor. The secretary of state, Charles Evans Hughes, wrote a series of blunt, bare-faced notes to the British, wanting want-ing to know why they barred American Ameri-can oil companies from Palestine, 6ince Palestine was not British but merely mandated to the British by the League. Meanwhile, the British, though barring the U. S. from their areas of interest, quietly invaded ours. They turned up with concessions in Colombia, not far from the Panama Canal. Even in Panama proper, a British gold-mining company staked out a huge and suspicious claim in an area where no gold was known to exist. History Begins to Repeat. In World War II, history at first began to repeat. The five senators who toured the world war fronts came back with the story of how the U.S.A. was rapidly depleting her oil reserves while the British were hoarding theirs. They told how the British were trying to keep us from further developing oil resources in Arabia; how the British had a refinery re-finery on the Gulf of Persia, 50 per cent idle, while we shipped oil clear across the Atlantic to British armies in the Near East. Yes, it looked as if history woul repeat. On last April 29, however, representatives rep-resentatives of the British and American governments negotiated negotiat-ed an informal understanding timed to eliminate the oil battles bat-tles of tbe future. It was an excellent, ex-cellent, far-sighted agreement. And during the last two weeks in Washington, Lord Beaverbrook and his associates have been negotiating ne-gotiating with Secretaries Ickes and Hull to make this informal oil agreement formal and binding. bind-ing. This time, the British have been far more cooperative and far-sighted than in 1919 with one possible exception. After U. S.-British experts laid their excellent April 29 ground work, Lord Beaverbrook kicked over the traces at some things, and he seems to be keeping a more watchful eye on the interests inter-ests of the empire than on a fair future peace. For instance, he has been insisting that Britain Brit-ain have the right to ban the sale of U. S. oil in England, despite de-spite the fact that British Shell sells in this country. However, the basic agreement is truly encouraging en-couraging when it comes to future fu-ture peace. Provisions of Agreement. It provides, first: "That petroleurr shall be available in internationa trade to the nationals of all peace loving. countries in adequate volume at fair prices and on an equitabh and non-discriminatory basis." This means that, if the U.S. A runs out of oil or vice versa, it ii up to Britain to help supply us un less, for example, one or the othei attempts to conquer Ethiopia as Mus solini did, and the world peace-ma chinery countries attempt to cut of their oil as the League tried to d to Italy but, because of pressun from the big companies, could no do. The agreement also gives "equa opportunity" for "acquisition," "de velopment," etc., in areas under con cession. This eliminates cutthroa rivalry for new fields. Each natioi is to respect the valid concession: of the other and its citizens. Finally, and very important, "ex ploration, development, operation o refineries and distribution shall no be hampered by restrictions impose by either government or its nation als." MERRY-GO-ROUND C Cautious Mr. Turk If you wan the real low-down on why the Turk; ; finally broke with Germany, it wa. 1 because Hitler had moved troops ou of Bulgaria just opposite Turkey A,ter that, the Turks weren't afraii of being attacked. . . . With Swedei : and Switzerland both closed to Hit ler for escape, his few remaininj ! navens are Japan which won't las long and Argentina. . . . It ha 1 ior. been rumored that the Naz ! top men were building up cash re j serves in Argentina. I |