Interim Guidepost

In a 14-minute ceremony one day last week, Under Secretary of State Stettinius and Lord Beaverbrook signed a British-U.S. oil agreement aimed at ending cutthroat competition between the two nations. In its final form the agreement's provisions are virtually the same as those the oil experts gave their Governments for approval last spring (TIME, May 15). Under it the two nations (which control about 90% of the world's oil) will set up an eight-man international commission by which they hope to: 1) stabilize postwar world oil markets; 2) provide orderly development of world oil properties, especially U.S. and British Middle Eastern concessions; 3) make petroleum available "to the nationals of all peaceable countries at fair prices and on a nondiscriminatory basis."

The commission can act only in an advisory capacity in settling international disputes. As a guidepost, it will point the direction for oil industries to follow until a proposed world conference replaces this interim agreement by a treaty among other interested nations.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.