Deep Sea Wealth

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 672, 25 May 1929, Page 9

Deep Sea Wealth

! COMPANY TO BE FORMED IN BRITAIN WORLD’S POTASH MARKET British Official . Wireless Reed. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Friday. Mr. Moses Novomeysky, who with Major Tulloch, was awarded yesterday the concession for the extraction of salts from the Dead Sea, left London today for Palestine. He will remain by the Dead Sea for a few’ weeks, bnt will return to London in July to form a company. It is possible that Lord Lytton, who has already consented to become | chairman of the company, will also j go out to Palestine this summer. A correspondent of the “Manches--1 ter Guardian,” discussing the possibilities of the concession,'says scieni tists are agreed upon the enormous potential wealth of the minerals lying in the Dead Sea; but opinions differ ! upon the possibility of putting these minerals on an extensive scale on the world market.

Some experts state that it is perfectly feasible to land potash from the Dead Sea in New York at a price onefourth of that of the potash of Germany, which at the preseht time largely controls the world’s potash markets; but other experts, such as Lord Melchett, are inclined to doubt that. Mr. Novomeysky and Major Tulloch are resolved to begin on a modest scale so that in the early years the German potash monopoly will have little to fear. An attempt will be made to found new markets in Palestine, Syria, Egypt and Iraq, and countries neighbouring the Eastern Mediterranean. If things develop as the concessionaries hope, however, a railway may be constructed to Aka.ba, and so a route may be found to the agricultural East which will avoid the heavy dues of the canal.