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Asian oil:
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: HESTER PULLING
Ducking the research issue
WHEN SENATE Assembly voted to bury
the classified research issue in com-
mittees for another two or three months,
it came as an expected but nonetheless
bitter disappointment for the several
hundred members of the University com-
munity who have spent the last several
weeks rallying and fasting and sitting
through iflterminable meetings to express
disapproval of the University's poli.cy.
Upon c 1 o s e inspection, however, the
anti-climactic result of the faculty body's
involvement in this semester's classified
research issue is, if anything, worse than
the most pessimistic expectations.
When the Assembly met, it was faced
with several possible courses of action.
The .strongest possibility was to pass a
Student Government Council proposal
banning all classified and military re-,
search, a proposal which was not even
discussed. The weakest option, one would
assume, was to do nothing.
However, the Assembly found an even
more objectionable response than "noth-
ing.'.' By sending the issue back to com-
mittee, any possible protest that the fac-
ulty did not act is neatly sidestepped, and
people opposed to the faculty stance have
been forced into the position of fuming
impotently, or fighting the windmill of
"further investigation."
SEVERAL ASPECTS of Assembly's action
served to stifle opposition. One of
these is the timing of the reports.
Assembly's decision to have its com-
mittees report in May and June severely
lessened the possibilit'y of a strong stu-
dent presence in the deliberations. Stu-
dents who go home during the summer
will come back to a faculty policy that
they had no chance to comment on, and
the few students who stay here will find
it hard to organize support in the quieter,
more relaxed summer atmosphere.
No matter how Assembly acts on the
issue this ,summer, its choice of timing is
objectionable-it indicates a lack of con-
cern for student input into decision-
making.
Another major problem with the facul-
ty's timing was pointed out during the
meeting by Michael Knox, a member of
the Classified Research Committee and
one of the chief s t u d e n t spokesmen
against the present policy. Knox claimed
that Assembly's postponement of con-
sideration of the issue left open the pos-
sibility that the committee could, in the
interim, accept 30 more contract pro-
posals with a possible value of as much as
$5 million.
BUT THE choice of timing is only one
of the many disturbing factors in the
resolution passed by Assembly.
In the resolution, Assembly instructed
its committees to find ways to bar classi-
fied and military researdh that has the
"clearly forseeable purpose" of killing or
maiming human beings. This is a quite
inconsequential change from the present
policy, which only bars research with the
"specific purpose" of killing or maiming
human beings.
Business Staff
JAMES M. STOREY, Business Manager
RICHARD RADCLIFFE SUZANNE BOSCHAN
Advertising Manager Sales Manager
JANET ENGL .. ....... ... Personnel Director
JOHN SOMMERS ............Finance Manager
ANDY GOLDING ,. . Circulation Manager
DEPARTMENT MANAGERS: Doug Buchanan, Beth
Greeley, Fran Hymen, Caryn Miller, Skip Woodward.
Assembly then pats itself on the back
by claiming to show "our desire to extend
the criterion well beyond the 'specific
purpose' wording adopted in 1968."
But saying that the new wording goes
"far beyond" the old fools no one-both
wordings are abhorrently vague, and the
new just compounds the problems of the
old.
For example, if a proposal states its
intent as developing remote sensing de-
vices to seek and destroy Communist
forces in Vietnam, it would presumably
have shown a "clearly forseeable pur-
pose" of killing or maiming human be-
ings. However, if the proposal stated the
purpose, like many do, as being "to im-
prove military reconnaissance capabili-
ties," would the purpose still be "clearly
forseeable?" There is no way to draw the
line.
The "clearly forseeable purpose" clause
of the Assembly resolution essentially in-
structs the two committees to suggest
virtually nothing besides a bit of semantic
juggling of the present policy.
ANOTHER UNPLEASANT aspect of the
resolution is the faculty's decision to
send the issue to committees which will
probably attempt to preserve the status
quo.
The faculty was given a chance to send
the issue to a proposed ad hoc committee
but it voted this proposal down. Thus,
the investigation is left with the com-
mittees least likely to have interest in
changing the policy. Both the Classified
Research Committee and the Research
Policy Committee include people who are
involved in classified research. Both are
faculty committees w h o s e membership
includes a, few token students. And the
Classified Research Committee has the
specific criteria that Its members cannot
be philosophically opposed to classified
research.
With these committees charged with
investigating and making recommenda-
tions, there seems little chance of a dra-
matic change of heart on the part of the
committee members. It seems apparent
that the suggestions they make will not
be substantially different from present
policy.
It seems pointless to discuss the wrongs
involved in conducting classified and
military research on this campus. That
has been discussed in great detail over
the past several weeks, but Assembly ob-
viously has not yet gotten the point.
IF ASSEMBLY will not act, perhaps stu-
dents will. The first step is to pass a
Student Government Council referendum
which calls for an end to military and
classified research. A strong vote on this
measure will indicate the depths of stu-
dent concern on the issue.
And clearly the burden now falls on
the s t u d e n t s. For Assembly had the
authority to recommend a major change
in policy to the Regents, but they failed
to use this authority properly. As history
Prof. Sam Warner said "when an organi-
zation like that is called to protect its
historic values and it votes instead to
protect is courtesy to its members, and
protect its patrons and its private in-
terests, then it is a corrupt legislative
organization."
A f t e r Monday's bureaucracy - ridden
farce, perhaps he's right.
-TAMMY JACOBS
By MICHAEL MORROW
Dispatch News Service
Second of two parts
SINGAPORE
INTERNATIONAL oil companies develop-
ing offshore oil reserves appear at first
glance to demand relatively little in the
way of political guarantees. With their
wells, rigs and even many of the refineries
offshore (all Singapore's refineries, for ex-
ample, are on satellite islands) they are
comparatively more immune from domestic
problems than most investors.
For example, one American oilman, when
asked if the war would hinder development
of Vietnam's offshore oil, said; "Why should
it? The supply can be done from Singapore
if necessary." Once in production, offshore
wells can feed tanker ships directly. The oil
can be carried, off without ever touching
base with the mainland.
Kenneth Wells, Singapore representative
of Ray Geophysical Company, which did
recent seismic exploration off the coast of
Vietnam. said "The North Vietnamese don't
have much naval power. It is a calculated
risk but not much worse than some in the
Middle East these days."'
The determining political factor for in-
ternational oil companies plunging on be-
yond the "risk capital"-they have so far
invested in Southeast Asia's oil-appears
to be confidence that friendly governments
will stay friendly and stay in power, even
if only muddling through revolution and war
onshore.
(There is an increasing fear among
Americans opposed to the Vietnam war that
the oil industry will pressure the Nixon
Administration to make an even stronger
commitment to the Thieu-Ky government.
A pamphlet making this argument was done
in February by the "Another Mother for
Peace" group. This has prompted 10,000
letters to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, according to Chairman J. W..
Fulbright (D-Ark.). State Department of-
ficials, in response to Senator Fulbright's
query' have disclaimed knowledge of oil
fields offshore Vietnam.)
IT IS LIKELY that Japan in addition to
the U.S. will make the political, economic
and military commitments necessary to
guarantee the survival of the current South-
east Asian governments. The most recent
symbol of Japan's growing political and
economic concern with the area is the dis-
patch in February of a 34-member "Asian
investment and finance research mission"
led by the Director of Tokyo's stock ex-
change under governmental sponsorship.
Japan's trade with Southeast Asia is now
over $6 billion yearly. Two-thirds of her in-
vestment in developing countries in 1969
went to East and Southeast Asia.
Involvement in the oil industry in partic-
ular is growing. Most recent of a spate of
aid-investment programs is a private $40
million loan to Indonesia's Petramina for
building oil tanks and pipelines in Western
Java. The late-February loan, made by the
Japanese companies Mitsui and Marubeni-
Iida, is to be repaid in oil exports to Japan.
Japanese firms now hold outright over
60,000 square miles of on-and-offshore .con-
cessions in Indonesia. In the last year,
moreover, Japanese firms have bought into
concessions of at least four other foreign
oil companies in Indonesia and Malaysia,
andh hveshown interest in getting involved
in offshore exploration in the Philippines,
Burma, and Thailand. Japanese firms are
reportedly negotiating with the Burmese, al-
though Burma has long been ideologically
opposed to foreign private investment.
According to Pertamina's General Suto-
wo, Japan now consumes one-half of Indo-
nesia's oil, some 70 per cent of Indonesian
oil exports. In late February, the Japanese
entertained Sutowo in Tokyo, agreeing to
a; 30 per cent rise in price for Indonesian
oil sold directly to Japan, in an apparent
attempt to reduce dependency on foreign oil
companies.
ON THE MILITARY side, the February 1
statement by Yashuhiro Nakasone, director
General of Japan's Self-Defense Agency,
that Japan may give priority to expanding
its Navy from 138,000 tons to about 240.000
tons with some nuclear-powered ships has
increased speculation that Japan will soon
be a military power in the.China Sea Basin.
Handing over its assumed responsibility for
Southeast Asia to Japan may be on Wash-
ington's agenda, but it is highly unlikely
this will be anything more than a gradual
readjustment designed not to endanger the
counter-revolutionary status quo in South-
east Asia. Growing American investments
in Southeast Asian oil bear this out.
In this vein, Assistant Secretary for Eco-
nomic Affairs, Philip H. Tresize said last
October that, "as a practical matter, we
cannot merely shrug= off these other peo-
ple's problems. Any real worsening of the
oil situation in Europe and Japan, where we
have mutual defense commitments on top
of otherwise close and important relation-
ships, would have to affect us . . . we recog-
nize the mutuality of our interests in seek-
ing to assuresagainst an energy crisis that
could harm us all."
The potential of international conflict over
Southeast Asia's offshore oil is very great,
particularly since long-term big power al-
liances in the regions are still up in the air.
For the moment, Japanese-American to-
Workers soak up incoming oil
getherness seems assured because of inter-
locking military and economic interests.
From the Japanese point of view partic-
ularly the alliance is important. Not only
do the Japanese rely on an American de-
fense umbrella, but, more importantly per-
haps, they are dependent on Esso, Caltex,
and other American firms, along with the
Dutch-British Shell combine for most tof their
crude oil.
THE JAPANESE-AMERICAN iliance is
not necessarily long-term, however, as is
indicated by warming relations between the
Soviet Union and Japan, as evidenced in the
joint Siberian development agreement, and
also by recent Japanese attempts to nor-
malize relations with China.
There is no doubt the Japanese are in-
creasingly unhappy with their dependency
on American oil interests. Following the
price hike from 23.2 to 28.5 cents per bar-
rel on February 18 by the five major West-
ern oil suppliers to Japan, Japan's Minister
of International Trade and Industry urged
the Japanese petroleum refining industry to
put up all-out resistance to the price rise.
At the same time, the Finance Minister
stated Japan had to make epochal changes
in her policy of securing natural resources
for her industries.
The Soviet Union's ambitions on South-
east Asian oil are unclear, though it is
obvious the Soviets are trying to develop
more rapport with Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand and Indonesia.
In Singapore, the most. recent indication
of this came in early February when the
outgoing Soviet Ambassador to Singapore,
Mr. Ilya Ivanovitch Safranov, told the local
press that there is "much similarity in the
parliamentary systems" of Singapore and
the Soviet Union. On February 23, with re-
gard to American development of offshore
oil in the region, Pravda carried an article
blaming American aggression in Indochina
on aspirations of the U.S. oil interests to
get offshore oil along the coast of Indochina.
China's position on the status-quo in
Southeast Asia is well-known. However, her
position on offshore oil in Southeast Asia
is a question-mark.
The Chinese are now reported to be self-
sufficient in oil from onshore wells in north-
ern China. However, production is reported
to be less than 100,000 barrels per day, an
amount which will have to be expanded as
China further industrializes, On February 24
China launched its largest oil tanker to
date, a 22,000 ton vessel giving indications
they plan to expand their role in the 0l
trade. The Chinese have involved them-
selves in the dispute over control of the Sen-
kaku Islands north of Taiwan. Whether or
not they are interested in developing their
offshore oil reserves at this point is not
clear, however.
IN ANY CASE, the chance of an interna-
tional confrontation involving oil between
the Chinese and another nation is real. For
example, there are many islands in the
center of the South China Sea over which
sovereignty is in dispute between China
and other governments. Some of these is-
lands are thought by geologists to be in the
vicinity of rich oil reserves.
One such island is Spratley Island, a 500-
by-300 yard, uninhabited bit of land 280 miles
Southeast of Sam Ranh Bay and 775 miles
Northeast of Singapore. It is claimed at
least by China, South Vietnam and the
Philippines. The Philippines has already let
oil concessions near it. What would happen
if either China or Vietnam let concessions
involving it is anybody's guess.
The State Department avowedly takes no
position when there is a sovereignty dispute
over the islands. However, an official in
the Asian-Communist Affairs Office stated
that if any islands "were administered
through the Philippines, we probably would
recognize the Philippines as having sov-
ereignty."
This is only one of several kinds of boun-
dary problems that could arise over oil. As
drilling is about to begin in Cambodia, for
example, continental shelf boundary dis-
putes exist with Thailand and Vietnam.
Further south, the continental shelf boun-
dary between Thailand and Malaysia is not
officially settled. And, between the Philip-
pines and Malaysia there is a long-standing
feud over who should own Sarawak and the
Palapan Island. Only Malaysia and Indo-
nesia have settled all their continental shelf
boundary problems.
In Vietnam there is the very real prob-
lem of how. oil development will influence
the war and just how many lives will be
lost keeping the country at least safe enough
for offshore concession. The Provisional
Revolutionary Government of the NLF an-
nounced February .23 it would not rec'og-
nize oil agreements made by Saigon.
THE SEARCH for offshore oil is indeed
one of the biggest things happening to South-
east Asia today. But it augers problems
for the future as great or greater than any
in the history of the region.
@ Dispatch News Service International
p.
it
4
Letters: New voices for the moderate life-view
To The Daily:
ON FEB. 14, a small group of
students voted to use extreme, dis-
ruptive political strategy, by adopt-
ing "an overall strategy of mili-
tant disruptive action against the
University and other appr Jpriate
institutions."
We would like to propose an al-
ternative movement for changing
society, by changing p e o p: e,
through the greatest of all revolu-
tionary instruments, love.
The movement might be called
the Third Societal Force. 'The
"third societal force" i modera-
tion, the two extremes being radi-
calism and reactionism. We pro-
pose this alternative because we
feel that by avoiding one extreme,
you cancel out the other.
Our tentative statement of pur-
pose follows:
1. There are always at least two
sides to every question. Ulcirnately,
as in a geometric figure, the
"sides" are linked to form a whole,
from which you cannot remove of
ignore any side without losing that
whole.
2. The elements of a mcdrate
life-view include :
-Compromise
-Belief in dialogue and its cor-
relate, genuinely trying to under-
stand another's point of view
-Reconciliation of opposites,
allowing seeming-contradictions
to live side by side
-Consistency
-A sense of the historical,
learning history's lessons
-A sense of time, of its infin-
ity, man's finite being, and the
significance of their relation-
ships.
3. Moderation is not synonymous
with neutrality; one must, after
weighing the evidence carefully,
take some course of action in ac-
cordance with the evidence, along
the guidelines of 2.
4. Moderation cannot approve:
-Heckling (in order to under-
stand another's viewpoint, you
must hear it)
-Repressive measures such as
denial or cancellation of scholar-
ships, trials by illegally-consti-
tuted courts, and expulsion (un-
less the person involved is clear-
ly shown to be a serious threat
to the physical lives of his c(:l-
leagues)
-Violence, or any form of de-
facement of property 'r persons
-The concept of immediate so-
cial change, because there is
time for long-range' action as
mentioned earlier.
This project began as a proposed
auxiliary to the Faculty Reform
Coalition, under the guidance of
Prof. Terrence Tice of the Resi-
dential College. But Tice has talked
to the Coalition members, and they
would prefer a separate student
organization which mi,;At work
closely with the Coalition, but
would not be related to it.
Though we might collab,)rate
from time to time on researching
one another's projects, and though
certainly the Third Societal Force
might provide student input for
Faculty Reform Coalition pro-
posals and vice versa, we would
be free to concentrate on areas of
broader interest to us than mere
faculty - administration relation-
ships.
But two people cannot make up
such an organization; they can only
begin it. We need student support.
-Charleen Cook
Steven Cole
Third Societal Force
Women's education
To the Daily:
IN REPLY to the letter (Daily,
Feb. 24) concerning the need for
the expansion of women's studies
at the University - with which
we would certainly .agree - may
Courses in English, Political Sci-
ence, and Psychology will be of-
fered during the spring half-term.
Offerings in the fall include cours-
es in Anthropology, English, Psy-
chology, Sociology and Education.
Women may register for Evening
Program sections during pre-
classification. Regular University
fees apply.
-Jean W. Campbell, Director
Center for Continuing
Education of Women
March 9
Movie tickets
To The Daily:
SURELY THERE must be a
better way. For three years I (and
others, I'm sure), have been vic-
tims of both poor planning on the
part of the cinema boards and in-
credible and consistent rudeness
on the part of the University com-
munity.
Tonight I was in line in t h e
Architecture building for the 7:00
showing of "Citizen Kane." My
place in line normally would have
secured a seat for the show. How-
ever, people lined up for tickets
in a horseshoe formation, so that
the last people in line were as
close to the ticket table as those
who had been waiting far longer.
Ticket sales were proceeding nor-
mally when the last twenty or so
people in line suddenly converged
on the table. What had been an
aggressive horde. Shortly before I
orderly line of people became an
reached the table tickets for the
7:00 show ran out, so that I and
others were prevented from see-
ing a show we had every right to
see.
This display of rudeness is not
restricted to movies shown in the
Architecture Auditorium. It oc-
curs as frequently at movies shown
in Angell Hall. The situation
there, however, is better. Tickets
are sold beforehand, so the most
one can lose by this sort of thing
of those people who have made
it their business to be early.
-Elyse Fox, '72
Feb. 17
Corporate recruiting
To The Daily:
SOMEONE NAMED George Wil-
son wrote in recently, complaining
that it would infringe his freedom
and cast aspersions on his "ma-
turity" if military/corporate re-
cruiting were banned. I think he
is perhaps a bit oversensitive, and
I hope t h i s personal reply will
straighten things out.
Many students believe that the
U.S. government is guilty of de-
stroying hundreds of thousands ofi
innocent people (as in Southeast
Asia) and of maintaining many
totalitarian and even genocidal
regimes (like South Africa. Indo-
nesia or Greece); and that certain
corporations, like Dow and GE,
provide repressive governments -
domestic and foreign - with the
military hardware to do so. Op-
ponents of this believe that such
actions are utterly, morally wrong.
In fact, George, policies that deny
to millions the right to live de-
cent lives - and sometimes just
the right to live - are so wrong
that it is not inappropriate to hin-
der them in small ways, for in-
stance, by sending them away.
These firms want to fill their slots
with our bodies, and it is no part
of a University's purpose to facili-
tate their doing so.
I note in passing, George, that(
the University has already deviat-
ed from your brand of "neutral-
ity" by denying its faculty the
right to "enter into any contract
support research the specific pur-
pose of which is to destroy human
life . . ." This is a fake, of course,
but in supporting even the pre-
tense, Fleming -- whom you claim
as a champion - reveals his hy-
pocrisy.
Libertarian motives are laudable,
but it is grotesaue to extend nriv-
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