Sinco Places a Bet

In 1935 Emperor Haile Selassie I made a last desperate effort to forestall an Italian invasion by offering to "rent" as much as half of Ethiopia to a big U.S. or British oil company. An agent for Standard-Vacuum Oil Co. promptly signed up. As such a concession might involve the U.S. in just the kind of international complications the Emperor wanted, the State Department forbade Standard to take it up. But Ethiopian oil rights still looked like a plum.

Last week, shrewd, poker-faced Harry Ford ("Sinco") Sinclair, 69, President of Sinclair Oil Corp., grabbed it. From Haile Selassie he got a 50-year concession giving him exclusive rights to all the oil he can find in all of Ethiopia's 350,000 square miles.

The contract was both flowery and nebulous. It said that the company was "sympathetic to the enlightened and wise guidance of His Imperial Majesty . . . and his Government toward the destiny, which by history and background, Ethiopia so well deserves." In return for the concession, Sinclair promised to devote part of its Ethiopian profits—if any—to build schools, hospitals, clinics, sanitary facilities "and other public institutions for the enhancement, education, health, culture and prosperity of the people."

Actually, the deal was very much an if, as & when proposition. No oil has ever been discovered in Ethiopia, although oil men have a strong feeling that important pools may exist there. But for jowly Sinco, who loves to bet on anything, it was a good gamble. By putting up small stakes, he stands to collect handsomely if Ethiopia has oil. In any case, oilmen guessed that Sinco has his eyes on Ethiopia's potentially oil-rich neighbor, Eritrea, which Haile Selassie covets.