OIL SECRETS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18424, 3 July 1925, Page 9

OIL SECRETS.

MR DOHENY'S STORY. FEARED WAR IN 1921. (BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION— COrTR'GHT ) (AUSTRALIA* AND X.SS. CABLE ASSOCIATION.') NEW YORK, J„lv l. Tlio "Xc-h-. York Times' 5 publishes a lengthy statement by Mr J. ft. Dolicny concerning his indictment on a charge fibf fraud in connexion with oil leases j4ivhi2; the expected testimony for the trial in October. Summarised., Mr Doheny states:

(1) There would never havo been any invalidation of tho Elk Hills, California, lease, nor would tho Pan-Ame-rican Petroleum Transport Company havo undertaken the construction at Pearl Harbour, Honolulu, of a naval oil baso, had it not been that Admiral John Robinson, Chief of tho Naval Bureau of Engineering, convinced] him icrsonally that a great war in thePacific threatened tho United States in 1921, and that the proposed Hawaiian oil baso was one link in a national defensive chain, on tho strength of which depended the victory or defeat of tho United States.

(2) That tho whole naval Ic-aso policy of tho Harding Administration was not originated by tho Secretary of tho Interior, Mr A. B. Fall, but by tho higher officers of tho navy, who were convinced that a great war in the Pacific threatened tho United States, as tlio result of confidential reports submitted by Admiral Cleaves, commanding tho American forces in Asiatic waters in 1921.

(3) The Secretary for tho Navy, Mr Detiby, and not Mr Fall, sugg<*ted the transfer of authority over the oil reserves from, tho Xavy to tlio Interior Department. The transfer was discussed at a full Cabinet meeting, at which the then Vice-President, Mp Coolid£?e, attended. (4) Dohony's own course was wholly determined by a conference with Admiral Robinson, who pictured an imminent, dreadful invasion of the United States, unless" a Honolulu baso were immediately constructed. He asked Dohcny, as a citizen, to corno to tho ■country's aid in an hour of peril. (5) Tho real reason for calling the Washington Conference for tho limitation of naval armament was to avoid this Pacific crisis by diplomacy, if possible, and tho secrecy marking tho oil negotiations was duo solely.to a fear that tlio conference, then in session, might bo wrecked if tho Powers learned that, while tho United States was working for peace, it was also preparing for war.