875.6363/103

The Chargé in Albania (Swift) to the Secretary of State

No. 126

Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that according to information received today from a reliable source, Mr. Hunger, the Financial Adviser to the Albanian Government, has presented to the Minister of Finance a memorandum setting forth his views on the oil question in Albania.10 I am told that he expresses himself as being opposed to a monopoly and that he is in favor of giving to each company which has submitted a contract to the Government an equal opportunity to participate in the exploitation of the oil lands in the country. He is said to have invited the attention of the Government to what he considers the more favorable terms submitted by the Standard Oil Company and to have recommended that the other interested companies be supplied with copies of its contract in order that they may be given an opportunity to revise their proposals along lines more closely approximating those of the Standard Oil Company. Should the Government approve this suggestion, he is further said to have recommended that the oil lands be divided into as many tracts as there are companies submitting proposals and that the companies draw lots for the choice of the land.

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I hope to be able to secure a copy of Mr. Hunger’s memorandum to transmit to the Department in the course of the next week or so.

I have [etc.]

W. Merritt Swift
  1. Not printed; a copy of the memorandum, which was addressed to the Prime Minister, was transmitted to the Department July 13.