Pauley Files

No. 1319
The Representative on the Allied Commission on Reparations ( Pauley ) to the Secretary of State 1

My Dear Mr. Secretary: General Pyron of the Army–Navy Petroleum Board and R. K. Davies, Deputy Petroleum Administrator for War, have indicated the urgent need of additional oil for prosecuting the Japanese War.

Unless European supplies are provided, approximately 300,000 barrels per day of refined oil products must continue to be imported by ocean-going tankers into Western Europe and the Mediterranean. Approximately 200 such tankers must be constantly used to move this volume of oil. Insufficient oil supplies and tankers to move such supplies may well prove to be a limiting factor in the military might which can be thrown against Japan.

To augment the petroleum available for the Japanese War and to release tankers for the Pacific, at least 50,000 barrels per day of crude oil or refined oil products are immediately required from Rumania, Hungary, or Austria, to meet a part of the foregoing 300,000 barrels per day of Western European and Mediterranean requirements.

It is recommended that the matter of securing at least 50,000 barrels of crude oil or refined oil products per day from Southern and Eastern Europe for shipment into Western Europe beginning September 1, 1945, be submitted to the heads of Government for immediate action at this conference.

Respectfully,

Edwin W. Pauley
  1. Printed from a carbon copy on which there is an uncertified typed signature.