OIL IMPERIALISM IMPERILS THE PEACE
BEALS, CARLETON
Oil Imperialism Imperils The Peace By CARLETON BEALS PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN shows promise that he will bring American affairs back from the dark realms of secret power politics into the sunlight...
...Attitude Of Soviet Russia This has always been a war-torn corner of the world...
...4. The Saudi Arabia development will contribute nothing to the present war effort...
...Part of the answer has been given...
...The Russian Government has just cut itself into a share in the control of the Suez canal...
...But the German imperialistic Berlin-to-Bagdad idea actually made far more sense than the present imperialistic Washington-to-Bagdad adventure...
...But the conference laid down the rules for oil exploitation for the whole world...
...With some effort by our State Department and our Navy, American companies were cut into the oil, getting a 25 per cent slice...
...5. The region is strategically indefensible...
...4. What will we do if inter-Arabian war menaces the pipeline...
...It has been submitted to American producers for possible revision...
...Note the following points: 1. The United States already controls 57 per cent of the world's oil resources...
...Behind the nice Atlantic Charter phrases of "free access" to the natural resources of the world and injunctions against "nationalization" of oil such as happened in Mexico, actually a vast British-American cartel to monopolize the oil of the world was given the green light...
...Roads and a string of airfields across the desert are being laid out...
...She has several Moslem republics within her own borders, and these are a potent force in the whole Arab world...
...Steps Toward Imperialism Nor was the American public told that our officials camped themselves near the probable outlet of the oil pipe line to be built across King Ibn Saud's country for more than a thousand miles at a cost of nearly $165,-000,000 of American taxpayers' money...
...What will be the attitude of the Soviet Union...
...It was not announced that this was merely a step in a secret oil intrigue far from American shores which may cost many American lives and could embroil us in future war...
...The Arahs were promised political freedom...
...Tankers can handle what oil has already been pumped, more quickly and cheaper...
...But France and England squeezed out Italy and divided the western end of the Mediterranean, and England nibbled her way all around the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, establishing 14 different protectorates...
...Her influence in northern Greece has already been made clear...
...The Spirit Of Ali Baba And so the three wise kings came, but it seems that over the gathering hovered, not the spirit of the Prince of Galilee, but the spirit of Ali Baba...
...It was not announced by the State Department that American officials talked with any of the lowly fel-lahin of the Arab world to learn about their poverty or their democratic aspirations...
...act a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, almost a declaration of war...
...That, as much as anything, led them into 2 bloody wars in a generation...
...STEP III...
...Perhaps the colorful stories about the tent and prayer rugs and gilded chairs of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia tickled the romantic vanity of Americans, but the gaudy Arab dictator had already been paid handsomely for his obeisance to the American rulers, with customary Oriental bakeesh in the form of abundant Lend-Lease and military supplies...
...Oil and Near Eastern territorial grabs were part of the loot of the first World War for democracy...
...The Soviet Union has shown that it will not tolerate the open door in Iran...
...3. What will we do if the British controlled Pan-Arab movement—and already a meeting has been held in Egypt—really asserts itself and opposes the imperialistic status quo...
...The fact is we would consider such an...
...None of this has any bearing on the present war effort...
...The Office of War Information put out an enormous amount of propaganda in Arabic, tried to get leading writers to contribute "What democracy means to me," as "it is very effective among the Arabs...
...Those agencies have had a free hand, without any controls by Congress, without any accounting to the American people to make commitments and carry on mammoth undertakings from Matto Grosso to Tibet, from the jungles of the Amazon to far corners of Africa...
...7. The Arabian project is a flagrant violation of the Atlantic Charter "to further the enjoyment of all states great or small, victor or vanquished, of access on equal terms to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity...
...The British pipeline from the Mosul fields in Irak, only 500 miles long and in a more accessible region, with plenty of British troops nearby, has been repeatedly sabotaged by angry partisans, revolutionists, tribal chieftains, rival companies, and war criminals...
...She, too, has been propagandizing the Arabs...
...Here, STEP I—a concession was obtained by Texas, Gulf and Standard of California...
...Joseph C. Grew, now Undersecretary of State, pushed the matter through successfully...
...Some pointed questions can be raised about the Saudi project...
...Can the Soviet Union look upon the Saudi Arabia invasion by us as anything but imperialistic aggression on her doorsteps...
...If we maintain 60,000 soldiers in Saudi Arabia, this will provide only 50 men per mile...
...The initial contingent reportedly consists of 50 officers and 9,000 men...
...All this is velvet for the companies...
...To be specific: Oil concessions have been secured by private American companies covering the entirety of the vast country of Saudi Arabia, in British protectorate Kuwait at the head of the Persian Gulf, and were sought in Iran (Persia...
...When American companies arranged recently for a concession in Iran, the Soviets cracked down hard...
...It is on the cross-roads of empire, long struggled for by Arab, Turk, Britisher, German, Russian, Italian, French...
...The pipe line, as we shall see, is only a small part of the outlay that will be required of the United States Government for the project...
...The Petroleum Reserves Corporation was set up under Ickes, apparently in imitation of such concerns as the British Anglo-Persian, to run Government oil projects all over the world...
...In setting up the Near East as another Caribbean—we will be faced not merely with the rebellion of the peoples, which led us into previous aggressions, but with the rivalries of the greatest powers...
...Here, certainly, is an opportunity for President Truman to use his influence to recover control of these activities, open them to public discussion, and halt a type of imperialism that will endanger future peace...
...It will depend upon the good will of competing French, British, and perhaps, in the not distant future, German and Italian companies...
...Royalties, non-interest loans, grants, fees, taxes, etc...
...It is not noted that they talked with any of the leaders of the various Arab movements seeking freedom from Western imperialism...
...STEP VI...
...15 article I revealed how American tax dollars and experts were tossing themselves around in Ascun-cion, Paraguay...
...The Soviets have been active in Palestine...
...In being taken into the game of military imperialism far from American soil, the American people were not consulted...
...Everything will depend on the good-will of England, and perhaps Russia...
...Are we not creating a Frankenstein in the Near East...
...It is still the main pivot of Near Eastern diplomacy...
...6. No cheap oil will be provided the American consumer...
...STEP VII...
...Was this to persuade him to sign up for a United States Government pipeline clear across his country and to permit the necessary defense...
...STEP IV...
...Neither country is abiding by the Atlantic Charter...
...And so, on the decks of a battleship was toasted the signing of a United States military mission to train the Saudi army and air force...
...were sent to Ibn Saud...
...Roosevelt's picturesque session with King Saud put the finishing touches to a very complicated deal, but one far more serious in that it involves the permanent stationing of American troops in the Near East...
...It is an imperialistic document, using lofty platitudes to cloak monopoly and governmental protection of oil imperialism...
...Will the Soviet Union be content to see American troops permanently in Saudi Arabia...
...Similar behind-the-scenes grabbing is going on right now during this war...
...1. How long will American troops remain in Saudi Arabia...
...Put the shoe on the other foot...
...The presence of American troops in Iran—forwarding Lend-Lease—was denounced—this in the shadow of Teheran...
...Many are shields for private grabs...
...2. What will we do if a people's revolution breaks out there...
...3. Vast undeveloped resources exist in Latin America, Canada, and Alaska...
...A city for 75,000 people is being constructed at the head of the Persian Gulf...
...STEP II...
...An "international" oil conference was held, but it was attended only by England and the United States...
...U. S. Troops...
...It menaces the foundations of any enduring world cooperation...
...Just as in and after World War I control of the oil resources of the world has been one of the principal stakes in the present conflict...
...Recent news reports declare that the Senate is reviewing the Anglo-American oil treaty...
...For a century and a half England fought repeated wars to keep Russia out of this particular cabbage patch...
...Its only strategic importance is to oblige us permanently to support the British Empire in the Near East...
...The companies will enjoy the use of the pipeline and the profits of the transaction...
...On top of this the American people will pay the cost of the pipelines, air-fields, ports, cities, and military occupation...
...The pipeline will require at least 5 years to complete...
...We are closing the door in Saudi Arabia...
...In my Jan...
...will probably take up to 40 per cent, as compared to from 7 to 16 per cent in Latin America...
...The companies have agreed to maintain a large supply of oil to be at the disposal of the United States Government when and if it desires to purchase it...
...This in turn means the building up of huge storage facilities in Saudi Arabia, Transjordan (British), Egypt (British protectorate), and perhaps Ethiopia...
...It would be no trick for rival British or French companies to stir up tribesmen to raid the pipeline...
...They raised Persian mobs against the government, filled Persian newspapers with denunciation of the government, and they overthrew that government and demanded the oil...
...Many of these undertakings are dangerous for the safety and peace of the American people...
...What I did not point out in my article is that this use of taxpayers' money was also to buttress up the penetration of new American capital into that region, and to gain the ascendancy over Argentine and British capital there...
...They violate the principles for which we are supposedly fighting...
...A contract was celebrated between the 3 companies and Petroleum Reserves to construct a pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, to be maintained at U. S. Government expense...
...The really gilt-edge project is that of Saudi Arabia...
...Challenge To Congress The Germans had their Berlin-to-Bagdad dream...
...STEP V. Other United States Government agencies are enlisted (the taxpayer footing the bills) to set up the necessary facilities and protection...
...Bountiful Lend-Lease materials, autos, tires, locomotives, food, agricultural machinery, fertilizers, insecticides etc...
...Only Saudi Arabia remained nominally free...
...The linking up of the incident with an ancient sacred legend was excellent publicity, but the American public was not told how this visit linked up with very serious imperialistic designs in that part of the world...
...Oil Imperialism Imperils The Peace By CARLETON BEALS PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN shows promise that he will bring American affairs back from the dark realms of secret power politics into the sunlight of democratic practices...
...In contrast, Saudi Arabia is a vast, uncharted desert, with only nominal law and order...
...This was only yesterday...
...The Soviet Union, the Dutch East Indies, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Peru—the major producing countries were not invited, nor were consumer nations...
...When Roosevelt returned from the secret Yalta conference, the curtain was briefly lifted on the back-stage mysteries to reveal a picturesque pilgrimage of three kings of the East to see him on a battleship not far from the ancient Holy of Holies...
...They were "liberated...
...The meaning of the visit of the 3 wise kings becomes clearer...
...The Persian Gulf is as vital to Russia as the Panama Canal is to us...
...One American concession is for oil, and we all know how oil was one of the major causes of the long Chaco War in that troubled region...
...The opportunity now exists to reexamine many activities abroad, long shrouded from the gaze of the American people under the false pretext of military security...
...Suppose that tomorrow the Soviet Union wrested a blanket concession for all the resources of the interior of Colombia, here in the Western Hemisphere, and dispatched troops and supplies...
...2. The Rumanian fields, partly developed by American capital, aided the Germans, not the United States...
...5. What will we do if Saudi Arabia, provided a modern army and training by the United States, turns imperialistic itself and tries to gobble up the whole Arab world by force...
...Only a people's Congress can recover control over the great bureaucratic business agencies, such as the petroleum corporation, now making imperial commitments everywhere around the globe...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 21
