By LAURA CHESTERS FOR THE DAILY MAIL: 16 JAN 2016
The last time Royal Dutch Shell cut its dividend was in 1945 when the Netherlands had just endured the ‘Hunger winter’ under Nazi occupation before the end of the Second World War.
Now investors are worrying their treasured dividend could be under threat again.
Shell is embarking on an audacious takeover of gas specialist BG Group. The £36bn deal will go to a shareholder vote at the end of the month. However, with the oil price at a 12-year low, many are warning the deal does not make sense.
And worse still, some are fearful that if it does go ahead it will mean Shell won’t be able to afford to keep paying its healthy dividend.
Shell pays the best dividend in the FTSE 100 and yields around 7.2 per cent on the current promised $1.88-a-share dividend. As Steve Clayton, head of equities research at broker Hargreaves Lansdown, explains: ‘Half of Holland would keel over in apoplectic horror if Shell ever cut the payout.’
A handful of institutional investors have already pronounced their views on the deal.
By 
Extracts from an article by 
In this week’s 
Explorers 2015: Shell pressing ahead in Chukchi after setbacks
From an article published 16 February 2015 by The Tide under the headline:
FROM AN ARTICLE BY ED VULLIAMY PUBLISHED BY THEGUARDIAN.COM AND THE OBSERVER NEWSPAPER, SUNDAY 25 JAN 2015 UNDER THE HEADLINE:
In October of this year, just 9 weeks ago, when oil was at over $90 a barrel, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden expressed his confidence that oil would return to what he described as “very robust” pricing. He said that the 
Such deliberate misinformation (propaganda, to put it politely) is also totally at variance with Shell’s claimed core business principles. This proves beyond any doubt that the media and the public should not believe anything Shell says. The company even lies to itself.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
