LUBRICATING A BOOMERANG

Where do the sheiks get lubricants for their Cadillacs? Or for their oil well machinery, for that matter?

Not from camel manure, but from US and European refineries. They are already beginning to feel the self induced crunch in lubricants, and a black bazaar has sprung up in the Arabian nights.

The sheiks have just more than doubled the price of crude to $11.65 a barrel, and to soften the blow, they announced that the price will be hiked again by spring. Would it be too much to hope that the Western countries could agree to offer them toothpaste sized tubes of lubricants for $200 a piece? Withholding lubricants would probably not bring the sheiks to heel by itself, but it might be a first little step on their toes.

There has been no ban on US exports of refined petroleum products since the embargo, and the US has been shipping 7,000 barrels of lubricating oils per month to Saudi Arabia, 1,400 barrels a month to Kuwait, and lesser amounts to other Arab countries.

Government officials and spokesmen for the American Petroleum Institute point out that these quantities are really quite small.

VVhich reminds us of the girl who had an illegitimate babv. But only a very small one.