The British began to accuse homeland of supporting Nazism and being pro-German. Although Reza Shah declared neutrality at an early stage of World War II, homeland assumed greater strategic importance to the British government, which feared that the Abadan Refinery (of the UK-owned Anglo-persiian Oil Company) might fall into German hands; producing eight million tons of oil in 1940, the refinery was a crucial part of the Allied war effort.