'F 80 File 82/34 I APOC Concession' [‎110r] (204/436)

w THE TIMES H
Wednesday, 7th Deer. 1932 «
CITY HOTKS .
A BETTER TOHB .
THE ANGLO-PERSIAK CIRCULAR.
The pound was steadier yesterday. It fluctuated
between $ ^nd ^ 3.21^, and finished almost un
changed on the day at ^ 3 # 20. The Gilt-edged market
was better in tone, the prices of a number of the
leading British Government securities advanced. Oil
shares, which had been weak since the announcement
of the Persian Government's violation of its contract
with the Anglo-Persian Company, made a general
recovery yesterday, thanks chiefly to the firm protest
lodged by the British Government, last evening a
circular signed by r. W. Fraser, the deputy-chairman,
was Issued to the stockholders of the company summa
rizing the events which preceded the annulment and
concluding with a statement of the board's policy. The
circular sets forth in a lucid and convincing manner
the history of this unfortunate episode. The concession
provided that the Persian Government, without risking
any capital whatever in the enterprise, was to receive
annually a sum equal to 16 percent of the annual net
profits that might be made, and it was not until after
15 years' work, when profits were first derived from the
concession, that the Government's shares was called into
question, in 1920 an agreement was signed under which
the Persian Government received a lump sum of £1,000,000
in final settlement of questions then outstanding, and
the basis upon which the company's profits were in
future to be calculated in ascertaining the royalty was
defined. Persia, of course, must have gained far more
indirectly from the employment of her people and from
the company's expenditure than she gained directly by
participation in the company's profits.
The fall in the Royalty .
The Government, however, appears to have been startled
on bein^f informed last June that the provisional royalty
for 1931 was only £306,872, comnared with £1,288,312 in
1930, although it had been warned by Sir John Caiman as
long ago as 1929 that conditions in the oil industry might
change for the worse, nlsappointment over the fall in the
royalty accentuated by national hostility to concessions
to foreigners, seems to be the reason for annuling the
concession. The issue, therefore, is really a simole one -
namely, whether a contract entered into with the Persian
Government will be honoured if its anticipations are not
fulfilled. Shareholders will appreciate the moderate and
reasonable tone of the circular and will endorse the
directors' view that they desire to settle the dispute
with the Persian Government in a friendly manner consistent
with their duty to preserve a fair and just equilibrium
between the Persian Government and the proprietors of the
company.