Corporation Balks on Oil Ban

Against the recommendation of its advisory committee, the Harvard Corporation voted yesterday to abstain on a shareholder resolution that would force Mobil Oil Corporation's two South African subsidiaries to ensure that no Mobil products are supplied to Rhodesia.

The Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR), composed of Faculty members and one student, voted by a substantial margin on Wednesday to advise the corporation to support the resolution.

The corporation subcommittee dealing with shareholder proxies chose to abstain because they felt it was an "economic, not a social issue," George Putnam '49, Harvard treasurer and a member of the subcommittee, said yesterday.

South African industrial secrecy laws forbid Mobil from releasing any information on its business dealings in the area, and the government reserves the specific right to choose the subsidiaries' clients, Mobil claims.

While there is unquestionably a flow of foreign petroleum into Rhodesia, it has so far been impossible to determine whether any is from the Mobil subsidiaries, due to these regulations.

Whether Mobil is representing the South African government's position accurately has proved to be the point of contention between the ACSR and the Corporation.

"We are not totally sure that the laws are that restrictive," Carlton Smith '78, the student representative to the ACSR, said yesterday. Smith characterized the laws as "discretionary."

Enforcing the resolution might compel the South Africans to relax information laws and give the shareholders a clearer idea of what dealings exist, Smith said, adding that under present circumstances the stock was invested in a "blind trust."

"The ACSR definitely objects to the sale of oil to Rhodesia," Smith added, but he said it is not sufficiently clear that Mobil is selling, and if so, that the sales are willful.

The issue was so obscure that while the Harvard Corporation subcommittee supported the ACSR "completely" on social grounds, it did not feel there was enough evidence to justify support for the resolution, Putnam said.