No. 315
Editorial Note
On October 21, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John D. Jernegan sent letters to the Embassies in Amman, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Jidda, London, and Tehran enclosing an NEA Staff Study on an International Treaty in Respect to Middle East Oil Disputes. The study, dated October 16, suggested a multilateral oil treaty restricted in purpose and membership to providing a forum at a governmental technical level designed to facilitate settlement of disputes arising between the oil-producing states of the Middle East and foreign nationals holding oil contractual rights in those states. The letters to the Embassies, dated October 21, asked their views and comments on the enclosed staff study as soon as possible, so that the Department of State might then proceed to confer with other interested agencies in the Executive Branch. It requested the Embassies to consider, among other matters, whether the proposed treaty would be acceptable to the Near Eastern states concerned, and whether the oil companies would like it. The study suggested that a treaty having suitable provisions against any encroachment on the sovereignty of any producing country and providing for a reference of disputes to an international oil commission on a voluntary basis might tend to counter the objection that the producing countries would be reluctant to submit disputes arising within their own borders to an international body whose findings would have the effect of impinging on sovereignty. As far as [Page 747] the oil companies were concerned, when a Departmental position had been determined, the Department planned to consult the companies on an informal basis to see whether the proposal was acceptable to them.
The letters to the Embassies and staff study are in Department of State file 880.2553/10–1653. A summary of the replies from the Embassies is in the memorandum by Byroade, Document 325.