Standard Oil of California Buildings Splattered with Red Paint As Protests Mount Against Pro-arab Po

Police reported today that buildings of Standard Oil of California have been splattered with red paint as protests mounted against the oil firm’s public stand for a change in United States policy in the Middle East to meet “the aspirations of the Arab people.” That stand was spelled out in a July 26 letter from SOCAL’s chairman. Otto Miller, which was sent to the firm’s 262,000 stockholders and 40,000 employes.

The letter said that Arab states “hold the key to the energy resources which fuel the industrialized nations of Western Europe and Japan” and “represent the only major source to which the United States can look for any substantial increase in its crude oil imports to meet our needs.” The letter continued: “It is highly important at this time that the United States should work more closely with the Arab governments to build up and enhance our relations with the Arab people.” Standard Oil of California is a partner in the Arabian-American Oil Co. in Saudi Arabia.

In San Francisco, four plastic bags filled with a red substance were thrown against the stone walls of the company’s headquarters. In Los Angeles, eight plastic bags of red paint were thrown at the company’s building in that city.

COALITION FORMED TO BOYCOTT SOCAL

The Los Angeles bureau of the Associated Press received a telephone call from an unidentified woman who said the paint symbolized “the death of Jews” and who demanded a “retraction” of the company’s “policy.” She ended her call with the words “Never Again. Remember the King David Hotel.” “Never Again” is the slogan of the Jewish Defense League. The King David Hotel in Jerusalem was blown up by an underground group during the British Mandate.

Shortly after the San Francisco incident, an unidentified caller told the AP bureau there that four bags of blood had been thrown at the Standard Oil building and that “never again will Jewish blood be spilled.” Police said it was not immediately known whether the liquid was blood or paint.

Douglas Ring, a businessman, announced the formation of a Coalition to Boycott Standard Oil of California. He said he was supported by Rabbi Max Nussbaum, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Rabbi Meyer Heller, head of the Board of Rabbis for Los Angeles, Ring said the SOCAL letter had aroused the Jewish community more than any incident since the 1967 Six-Day War.