OIL SCANDAL
PROMINENT MEN PROSECUTED. PATRIOTS OR GRAFTERS? WASHINGTON, Nov. 24. Newspapers here give prominence to cable messages from Tokio, stating that the Japanese Government will seriously protest against being dragged into the prosecution of the oil magnate, E. L. Doheny, and the exSecretary for the Interior, A. B. Fall, as a sequel to the scandal over the Teapot Dome and other oil leases. While no official note has been sent, still Tokio argued that, as the relations between America and Japan are so good, why should the former stir up the dead bones of this old controversy ?
Japan’s feelings have been hurt by the statements of Mr Frank Hogan, Doheny’s counsel, that the whole motive for the lease being granted to Doheny by the then Minister, Senator Fall, was the American Government’s uneasiness over the unprotected Pacific coast, the knowledge they had regarding Japan’s mobilisation plans and the necessity for putting oil where it could be used in an emergency. Mr Hogan has argued that Doheny and Fall were so patriotic that they should have received medals instead of summonses.
According to the prosecution, Doheny’s prospectuses set out that a profit of £20,000,000 was expected from the Elk Hills reserve. Tho Government Prosecutor has asked the Secretary for the Navy, Mr Curtis Wilbur, to produce the official records in connection with the Japanese war scare of 1921 and 1922. Mr Wilbur said he would submit these records to a secret session of tho jury.
A Congressional investigation was held three years ago into the conditions under which oil lands in Wyoming and California, which ' had been set aside by Congress as a fuel oil reserve for the U.S. Navy, had been transferred from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior, and then by Mr Fall, the former head of that department, to the Sinclair and Doheny oil interests, the Sinclair concerned being tho millionaire owner of Zev, the famous racehorse.
Evidence was given during the inquiry of substantial financial assistance having been given by both Doheny and Sinclair to the Minister and others connected with him.
The leases were eventually cancelled by a vote of the Senate.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19261206.2.123
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Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 7, 6 December 1926, Page 10
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360OIL SCANDAL Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 7, 6 December 1926, Page 10
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