663.116/59a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Austria (Kliefoth)
22. Representatives of the Vacuum Oil Company state that the Austrian Government is about to allocate import permits of artificial and natural crude oil for 1934.
They are fearful that this allocation may be undertaken on the basis of allocations in former years without equitable reference to the Vacuum Company’s recent extensive investment in the refinery of its Austrian subsidiary and the resultant increase in the latter’s refining capacity which they state now equals that of any plant in Austria.
You are authorized to call at the Foreign Office as early as practicable and to express the hope that in the allocation of quotas for 1934 due regard may be had for the investment of the Company and the refinery’s relative throughput capacity.
Please report developments.