All Three of Us

From the Scottish castle of Achnacarry, whither he had gone as the guest of its famed tenant, Director-General Sir Henri Deterding of Royal Dutch Shell Oil (TIME, Aug. 20), Walter Clark Teagle, president of Standard Oil of New Jersey, last week sent a telegram. It was addressed to the London office of the Associated Press. In effect it read: "Tut-tut!" Actually it read:

"Thank you for your courteous inquiry. There is no mystery about my being here as one of Sir Henri Deterding's guests for grouse-shooting, as I have had the pleasure of being his guest on numerous previous shooting parties while in Europe.

"Naturally, the ramifications of the world's largest industry, namely, petroleum, in which all three of us are interested, affords and will always afford a wide field for conversation."

The Associated Press knew that the third member of "all three of us" was Sir John Cadman, chairman of Anglo-Persian Oil Co.

Despite such positive disclaimers of mystery, the London press persisted. The Daily Express found its reporters "rebuffed in all attempts" to get information. But lynx-eyed newsgatherers discovered "a complete secretariat" and a number of other (unnamed) oil officials concealed in the castle, or, more mysteriously, "in its neighborhood."

No news, save Oilman Teagle's tut-tutting telegram, emerged from the Achnacarry woods, presumably full of roving officials. But anonymous "authorities" were not averse to revealing the true nature of the shooting party. This was explained variously as:

1) A meeting to arrange a merger between Royal Dutch Shell Oil and Standard Oil of New Jersey. And, for good measure, even the Anglo-Persian company might be included in the breath-taking consolidation.

2) An effort to agree on limiting production in Mosul, a newly-opened field in which U. S., British, French and Dutch Shell companies have equal rights.

3) A forerunner of a world conference, to be called in October, to limit production in all oil fields, ending the race to corner the supply, lessening international tension.

Merger reports were scouted as soon as printed. But Standard Oil offices in the U. S. did not deny that problems of overproduction might be discussed at Achnacarry, might even be urged forward to solution.