Miller Says He Meant Israel, Too

Otto N. Miller, chairman of the board of Standard Oil Co. of California, has written a letter explaining his view to the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco. Miller said that U.S. efforts to bring peace in the Middle East should be based on “the legitimate interests of Israel and its people as well as the interests of all other states in the area.”

“The essential point of my letter,” Miller wrote to Richard M. Kaplan, the Council’s president, “was that a peace agreement fair and equitable to all states in the area, consistent with their independence and sovereign integrity, is essential to the United States.

Meanwhile, following its strong telegram of protest last weekend to the chairman of Standard Oil Co., calling upon him to rescind his call to the company’s stockholders to back the Arab cause, the American Zionist Federation yesterday submitted a memorandum to Jewish and Zionist community leaders across the nation calling for further “immediate action.” This memorandum was issued before Miller of SOCAL sent his explanation.

In a Guideline sent to 3300 such local leaders, Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the AZF, asked these leaders to “make known your strong views in this situation by writing to the chairman of Standard Oil” and voiding and returning their Chevron credit cards to SOCAL. He further requested them “to stimulate as many persons as you can to take similar action,” and urged stockholders of Standard Oil to act similarly.

Rabbi Miller said that it is the view of the AZF that unless Standard Oil meets with strong public resistance to its action, other oil companies may succumb to Arab pressures to follow SOCAL’s lead.