SOME pro-democracy activists in Burma had asked me, whether a campaign against the oil company Unocal would also helped the cause of East Timor. This has led me to investigate the oil companies role in the East Timor dispute, and interestingly enough, I found a historical "Burmese connection" in the Timor Gap case. Burmah Oil, a British company was set up in Burma during the colonial time to drill oil in what was then the first British-controlled territory where oil was discovered. The company was founded by Lord Strathcona, a rich Scots millionaire who had financed the Canadian Pacific Railway, and grew instantly into a big oil company thanks to the orders from the British imperial Navy.