FOR BRITAIN THE MIDDLE EAST MEANS OIL. And the war now raging between the Arabs and Israel is threatening both supplies and the massive capital investments thet have been poured into the area by the oil monopolists. Last year BP. and Shell accounted for one third of the total amount of oil produced in the Middle Last.
ican capitalists are even more involved in the oil stakes than are their cai reecaartes In 1966 U.S. companies took out 250 million tons from the 310 million tons that remained after the British had taken 162 million tons. A spokesman for British Petroleum said it was impossible to calculate how — cash the company has invested in the area," but it must be very considerable". For British Capitalists the problem is not just one of oil profits. For instance Kuwait ranks only second to Australia as a holder of sterling.It is reckoned. that the Sheik of Kuwait has around £300 million in sterling. Added to this is the cash that the Kuwaiti capitalists have in this country ~ some £100 million - as well as the investments from the £200 million that come in each year from oil revenues. Even this is not the full extent of Kuwait's financial ties with Britain, recently the United bank of Kuwait was opened here with an issued capital of £1,000,000. Kuwait and Iraq are the second most important customers for British exports in the Middle East , both countries buying more than £25 million of goods from Britain. However, the most important sale isn't mentioned in the official figures . That is the £102 million worth of arms that are being sold by Britain to Saudi-~Arabia, Not including the Saudi-Arabian deal Israel buys more from this country than the Arabs, In 1966 anglo-Israeli trade amounted to almost £52 million. It is quite clear that the financialists and capitalists of this country are too closely tied to both Israel and other Arab states to allow Wilson to align the government w:’k.ihe Zionists, likewise American capitalists and Johnson. The situation also looks like becoming more perilous for the Arab oil Sheiks and na feudalists who will be riding in increasingly unsafe saddles as the pressure mounts from their own exploited peoples.