SABLES OR OIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1924, Page 4

SABLES OR OIL.

A SOVIET PRORLKM. .MOSCOW August f. Sables or oil ? Thai, is the* question which tin* Soviet (iovernmeiil's planning commission must decide. Far off in the noil hern Pacific tin* peninsular ol Kamchatka protrudes from the mainland like a dagger blade separating the Behring and Hunter Seas. The* planes of the American I'ounct-tlie-wcjrlcl-ll.vers e-ume to rest for a brief hour off the coast of Kamchatka ami then proceeded on their airy way to tlu* Japanese archipelago. For decades Kamchatka has been Russia’s best happy limiting ground for sables. Fvery year o(10() of the little blue-black animals, whose* skins are valued at approximately Cl00,0(10 were bunted down on the peiisiniila. Xmv an expeditic :i led by R. I. Polevoy, a geologist of tin* Soviet (ecological Survey, has discovered oil on Kumeluika. The oil is of an extra fine quality and yields 7d to 7S per ecu of kerosene, whereas the best crude product of the Baku field yields only

-111 per ccm. The find, is of paramount importance to the economic development of Siberia. Russia’s unfathomable petroleum resources in the Caiiseasus are too far from this vast domain, while the oil fields in northern Sakhalien are still occupied by Japanese troops. Considerable pressure is therefore being put on tin* .Moscow authorities to appropriate a sum of money for the opening of the Kamchatka field. But here the sables interfere. The oil deposits which Professor Polevov lias discovered are situated just below tin* trapping grounds for sables. The sables from the entire peninsular rush into this trapping space during a certain season of the year when the three rivers of the district overflow their banks. The small fur-bearing animals seek refuge in the high open preserve of the Clovernmcnt. A decree prohibits any manner of industrial or milling activities in the area. And the soft sables, seeking refuge, find death. Experienced limiters have no difficulty in trapping the creatures wholesale. Kamchatka supplies one-fourth of Russia’s sables. Will madnmc lie able to step into one of those brilliant shops in London, Paris or New York this summer or next and buy herself a cape made of Kamchatka sable? It depends on | the decision of the Bolsheviks in Moscow. Will they annul the decree and permit the sinking of wells, thus to drive the sables away, or Will they be kind to the sables and help them reach the markets?