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·sritain: "Going Down the Drain"
A worldwide economic recession has swept nearly
a
mil/ion Britons out of their iobs. Omi·
nously, the unemployment figure is pro¡ected. to top
1.5
mil/ion by mid-1976. lnflation.
~eceding
in other European countries. has accelerated to
25%
in the last twelve months and
to more than
30%
since January. Unions ar(J demanding wage hikes in excess of
40%.
The.
pound has fallen to its !owest poin.t ever. Britain, in the words of U.
S .
Federal Reserve chair· •
man Arthur Burns. "is going down the drain. ·· Here are some paígnant views of Britain from
the pens of her own política/ cartoonists.
NEVER IK T11E FIELD
Of HUMAI\ OOMFI.ICT
WAS SO 11\UCH O'IIED
8Y SO MAHY TO SO
FE'/1.
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MEVER
UtJW
M--·
'IIAS SO MUCH OWEO
-$1·–
..
'1>-,...,~
==
..
1
1
l
••
Owin1 to, the
--..,e.-nt
economic
criils. 8 rothe11. •• IUJI••t
triMMin• our wage
demuu~
fiom
i30 down to
S
}p •
)lteek."
..JF
EVERYONE
Qf
THE COUN'mY WORKEO AS HARD AS
H~
OO&S- WE•O SOON BE BACK. ON OQR FEET ACAIN."
WEEK ENDINO JUNE 21, 1975
SHOWDOWN OVER
MIDEAST OIL?
by
Adli Muhtadi
Are.bAtfairs
The government of Saudi
Arabia receñtly formalized an
agreemenl with General Motors
to establisb a joint-venture Au·
tomobiJe assembly plant. With
ao initial capital of
$40
million,
40% of wbich will be .held by
Saudi Arabia, the new compaoy
wiU be called Saudi General ,
Motors. The agreemeot heralds
improved relations between the
U
.S.
and Saudi Arabia.
The trend toward cooperation
between the two countries was
highügbted. by K.ing Khaled's .
April ratification of tbe June
1974
tecbnical, industrial, eco–
oomic anq agcicultural agree–
merit between lhe United States
and Saudi Arabia. The agree·
meiu entailed lhe establishing
o(
four committees to researcb
joint projects for tbe
two
coun~
tries.
A
Beoe6cial Relationship
The Saudis place consid·
erable importance- on American
a id 'in - their industrialization·
program. At lhe conclusioo of
tbe OPEC miniSterial confer–
ence in Kuwait, Saudi Arabian
oil minister Sbeilcb
Zalú
Y
am–
ani announced that American
companies wbose shares in thc
Saudi oil industry are being ·
bougnt out will be given in·
centives
10
eocourage lhem to
assist
in
!he kingdom's . indus–
trial expansion.,
Yet despite tbe increased
co–
opcration between the United
States and Saudi Arabi'a, the
condict between Western indus–
t.rialized nations and oiJ-produc–
ing countries simmers on.
Otber oil-producing countries
are pressuring Saudi Arabia to
abandoo its moderate stand on
oil prices. Algeria in particular
did not like tbe fact tbat Mr.
Yamani declined from openly
blaming the U.S. for the failure
of !he April Paris energy ta.llcs.
Saudi Arabia's policy on pro·
duction levels and pricing will
undoubtedly depeod on lhe at·
titude of Western nations
lO<
ward lhe oil exporting couotrieS
and !he nations of !he Third
World.
The Saudis wiU want ·to see
meaningful moves toward
Western monetary reform so
that the purchasing power of oil
revenues and tlle value of pro–
ducen' assets will not be seri·
ously eroded by Western
inftation. Tbe revenue of tbe
'oil·produciog nations has aJ.
ready dropped ·25% as a resuJt
of inJlatioo. Tbey will also want
beneficia! agreemeots relating
to otbe.r raw materials.
lf !he Oil Ooeso't Flo;. .. .
Awake to the ever-preseot
daoger of renewed oil em–
bargoes. the United States has
hinted at the possibility of mili·
tary iotervention against the oil
countries.
)\ssistant Secretary of State
Thomas Enders has warned lhat
an oil embargo would be "close
to nuclear warfare"
in
ils
im·
pact on lhe West, and he even
went so far as to int.imate that
tbe Western powers migbt com–
mandeer oil tankers on lhe higb
· seas should tbis happen.
A rather more drastic reac–
tion was foreseen in an aston–
ishingly detailed plan for an
American military strike against
Saudi Arabian oil fields pub·
lished severa! months ago.
More re<:ently, James Schles–
inger hinted at lhe use of force
in the event of anotber oil em–
bargo. The U.S. Secretary of
Defense said that America
would be less toleran! and
mig~t
resort to economic, politi·
¡:al_,
-and "conceivably military
measures in response." Natu–
rally, lhe Arab world reacted
angrily. Egyptian officials de–
scribed Mr. Schlesinger's re·
marks as "tactless and
untimely."
Coming Oil Conferuce -
Compromíse or Collapse
H<¡pes for stable oil prices are
pinned currently on a propo5ed
July oil conference in Paris.
Ambassador-at-large for tbe
Saudi Ministry
of
Petroleum
and Mioerals, Mohammed
Joulc:hadar, has warned that
Saudi Arabia Cánnot contioue
to play !he role of moderate
among the OPEC members, un–
l~s
there- is ·an uopen heart"
meeting in Paris wbere concrete
agreements are reacbed. ·
But wiU the industrial nations
and the oil producing countries
succeed · in reacbing
~a
com·
promise in t,he demands they
malc:e ofeach other?
What course of action would
the nations of Europe or Japan,
who could survive a complete
. oil bloclc:ade for no more than
six months, take if tbe Arabs
w~re
to impose another oil em·
bargo?
Plal11
Truth
has long warned
of an explosion in the Middle
East that will force !he nations
of Europe to become involved
in the stabili!Y of the area. Will
oil once again be tbe catalyst to
bring about sucb an explosion?
We may not bave long to wait
for tbe answer. O
.... 1