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Show necurely In poaaeaalon of MoauL Having- arcompliahed thla. It becama merely a queatlon of realatlnj; a claim for which wa could no longer plead equal title of poaaeaaion, and reducing that claim to tha loweat limit poaaible. ENGLAND SUPREME. Precisely tha aama thine happened I 9 !l PETROLEUM IMPERALISM j at Katum, where England took con- trol of the petroleum auppllea and dla-poaed dla-poaed of tha product at Ita own dlacre-tlon. dlacre-tlon. It tolerated no Interference! with its sales, and adopted varloua underhand under-hand and even of f Iota 1 measures to limit the quantity received by France. The British first took all the,petroleum I they needed for their own purpoaea. and gave us any surplus which might be left over. On the other hand, while refualng to recognise the agreemnt made between Waller Long and Berenger regarding the allotment of petroleum beyond our boundaries, England Inaiata on enjoying enjoy-ing all the rights that agreement would give It In our colonies. For Instance, the Royal Dutch company ia behind a nominal French corporation which pro-posee pro-posee to explore and derelop petroleum lands In Madagascar. Perhaps we should add here that American prospectors pros-pectors chance to be operating already In our African colony. What haa France done to liberate m Itself from the embraces of these two rival trusts? Are we forced either to submit to the Draconic demands of the Standard Oil company or to the equally insistent pressure of the English, who are so liberal with pleasant word a and contains at least si many pro-Germans as pro-Allies. Ikese pro-Germans, 1 while demanding oiah payments of us, are offering the Herman government practically unlimlad credit. The ar-rangementa ar-rangementa betwn Germany and America, which it the old days gave Standard Oil a poetical monopoly, of supplying that cositry with petroleum products, have be renewed more intimately in-timately than evr. ( Are we to infer from this thst the Royal Dutch conpany is leas to be feared, because It is apparently more pliable to our wishes? Yes, if we look no deeper than tss surface; but no, if we go to the bottan of the situation. On November a, 1919, Immediately after we atopneJ pujchanlnsr from the, I Standard Oil company, Ita great rival I granted us a preliminary credit of 2.- 000,000 pounds sterling, and promptly! delivered each nanth the quantity of j petroleum and gwollne provided In our' contract. On Jarjary , 1920, It raised I the credit to S.OWW0 pounds. But the! new contrsct, altlaurh drafted according accord-ing to the aiiRReMuns of its own foreign for-eign agent, and febe&al enough to pro- I vide an adequaa siiddIv for Vrnnn I By M. LOUIS LE PAGE, (dreat interest was aroused In Parla by the announcement in Le MaUn of October IS that a Standard Franco-American Franco-American Oil company haa been organized. or-ganized. 49 per cent of whose stock was owned by the American Standard Oil company and 61 per cent by a leading lead-ing l'u r la bunk. The president Is the eminent French diplomat, Jules Cam-bon. Cam-bon. The following article appeared originally in tha Revue L'niveraelle.) Our two great Anglo-Saxon neighbors neigh-bors monopolise the petroleum industry of the world. One of them controls SO per cent of all the petroleum produced; the other owns one-half of the tank ateamera upon tha ees. The two are fighting each other for eupremacy and France la their helpleaa victim. This la the harah truth. - At times the Vnlted States and England Eng-land have come into direct connict, aa in i'oland. Rumania and tha Caucasus. More commonly, however, these two governments have ambuscaded themselves them-selves behind trusts In their struggle to acquire petroleum. The two great trusts are the American Htandard Oil cmiany and the British Royal Dutch Shell company. Other Felrolcum companies of great wealth and power exist in the United 8tate, auch as the Texas Oil company com-pany and the Sinclair Oil company, whone capital amounts to at least half a billion dollars; but all these Independent Indepen-dent producers do obeisance to the uncontested regal power of Standard Oil. How can anyone oppose thla mighty money power which Is reported to have at its disDosal twice-the prewar budget later. Sir Hamar Oreenwood, perform priceless services for the London foreign for-eign office. Just as the old Herman commercial ortraraxationa before the war apied out the world for the foreign office at Berlin and did loyal duty for the Prussian general staff. These companies com-panies pave the way for the expansion of Britiah Influence, and In return arc powerfully aupported by British diplomacy. diplo-macy. We have a good lllustrattun of the success of this cooperation In the Turkish treaty. The division of territories ter-ritories that treaty provides signalise Kngland's solicitude to procure petroleum petro-leum and to forestall America. Surh oil fields as were left to France were given ua with the implied idea that Ureal Britain would participate In developing de-veloping them. Lloyd tieorge Is so Jealous of British sovereignty In Mesopotamia Meso-potamia that he will not even permit American prospectora In that region, and lncldenta have occurred which have led Americans to carry their protests pro-tests to their slate department. RIVALRY KEEN. However, the rivalry between England Eng-land and America has found a battlefield battle-field nearer home. In France Itself, where our own Irresolute policy makes us a tempting field for exploitation. We have no reason to be surprised at the recent action of Standard Oil. That organization was not overfrtendly to-frunkly to-frunkly hostile toward the end of 19l. It came to the point where the gov ernment director of the petroleum prod-ucta prod-ucta was compelled by financial exigencies exi-gencies at home to cable to the French mission In New York, on November 22. 1919, to purchase no more petroleum from the Standard Oil company, since the latter would sell only for cash. so grasping when It comes to deeda? j Were the French government to adopt ;a resolute, clearly defined petroleum i policy conforming to our national needs and worthy of our national standing, we ahould not be In our present humiliating hu-miliating position, and we might speedily speed-ily become Independent in the matter of oil auppllea. First of all, Germany la now pros- trate and we have an excellent opportunity oppor-tunity to take Its place among European Euro-pean nations. Just before the war that country waa planning to monopolise Its petroleum business. France ought to conclude an agreement with the Polish government, guaranteeing It the entire Gallclan surplus for a long period. It milrht Obtain In the mm .a was not ratified If the home company on the pretext ttat It would be Impossible Impos-sible to read.luatlts whole scheme of world deliveries s as to fulfill these new obligations. SUSPICIONS AROUSED. We are Justlfial In Inquiring whether wheth-er the Royal Dutch company Is not playing a game, thlch consists of extending ex-tending one handtnd holding the other behind Its back; md whether Its pretended pre-tended Inability a supply us does not represent a courtarus defeat for France, but one due to sate as Interested motives mo-tives on the pan of that company aa waa the more brail refusal of Standard OH.. In purchaaux the Colslln building j here In Paris, hulhe company not in- of a great nation like France? Yet a giant opponent has arisen In Europe, defying the Standard Oil, and to quolo Lloyd tieorge. "during to look !the dottm-straiKHl In the whiles of the ews.' The Koyal Dutch hell company com-pany wan organised In Holland, where it -started very modestly back In 1890. In the hands of English capitalists, however. It has become a mighty lever j to serve the purposes of Britain's poll- tical expansion and domination. With llithtntng rapidity it haa overtaken the Standard Oil company, and la now engaged en-gaged In a life and death etruggle with! that giant, the Isaue of which ia still j uncertain. The Itoyal Dutch company has followed a policy opposite to tliat of the Standard OH. It has aought to 'produce the greatest possible quantity at the greatest possible number of points." It is an absorbing, spectacle to, watch these two great commercial, financial fi-nancial and political rivals follow, with apparently equal success, diametrically opposite ollctes. But tlie men who direct di-rect them, though they may pursue dif- dlc.nted equal; ambitious deslgna againat France, a aplte of the cordiality cordial-ity It displays ism the surface? Moreover. th (nurae of English diplomacy di-plomacy also lirtes some distrust. I am not referrlDjto the decided differences differ-ences of opinio, shlch led to the conferences con-ferences at LcwWri. San Kemo, Hythe and Spa. I an referring onlv to our l ri?,,n reacll understanding with the Brltiah gomnnient on the petroleum petro-leum question. The results do not encourage en-courage ua to pare the most favorable interpretation ipon the reasons given by the Royal Dwh company to Justify Ita refusal to afirm u. contract. Fy the arranrsnent between France and Great BriUa, concluded by Walter Wal-ter Ior.g snd Bwnger on March and , 7 of last year, feu, countries agreed to ' i Pursue a Joint ssroleum policy every- I !.h Mf. ""Xularly In the Orient, the Med .erran, basin. Rumania, Asia Minor, the Fn, colonies, the man- I date, and the fciti8n rrown co,,mi., ProvMrtthat this arrangement might be extd to cMel and to important share at least one-quarter and perhaps one-third of the Rumanian Ruma-nian output. We should do the same in the Caucasua and elsewhere. Haw-ever, Haw-ever, our diplomats must learn to apeak with resolution and assurance. We , must treat with England and America as equals with equals. How la French !capltal being Invested at present? It 'is invested In British enterprises, like I the Royal Dutch Shell company and the Mexican Eagle company, but It doea not exercise the allghtese Influence upon the policies of thqse great corporations. cor-porations. There Is no great petroleum ' company which ia entirely French, con-troling con-troling a great capital and capable with the encouragement of our foreign office of imitating the Standard Oil trust and the Royal Dutch Shell company. a'-Furthermore, a'-Furthermore, we ought to develop leV the petroleum resources within our own ' territories and colonies, particularly thoae of Alsace, Auvergne, Algiers, Tunis, Tu-nis, Morocco and Madagascar. We ouk'ht also to build our own tank ves- aelN to n m I' 1 ri a mi . ....... i ., . I " .mill 1 1 1 1 1 j ni vnnu. Since then the American trust has j remained Inflexible. It haa tried to force a crisis In our supply, which . would compel the French government jto give up its plan of a state monopoly iconlmling purchaaes and importations. In other words, the Standard Oil com-, com-, pany Is endeavoring to impose Its own monopoly upon us. It demands aliso-llute aliso-llute freedom of trade, which Is tanta-I tanta-I mount to trade controled and dictated iby its own pleasure. Most French re-I re-I fineries are already Standard OH sirents. The trust owns In our country three great branches: the Bedford Pe-I Pe-I troleum. the Vacuum Oil and the Atlantic At-lantic Refining company. It has Just 'founded In addition LKeonomlque. and fompaigne Commercial des Produits Petroliferes. corporations capitalised respectively at 20,000,000 and $35,000,000 francs. They have established offices In the Champs-Elysees on a sumptuous scale, Indicative of great hopes and vat plana for the future. More serious still, the manoeuvres of Standard OH to make France its commercial com-mercial fief, and even to dictate an economic policy to the government, create by a chance unanticipated when France and America won their common com-mon victory, a new German danger in our midst. We must not forget that t brwrd of directors of this trust ,tlons at every Important French port: I to erect our own pipe lines, and to i found a school for petroleum -engineers, i The future of our merchant marine and our nary Is at stake. We must at all costs find enough petroleum of our ! own to supply our needs. (Translation by the "Living Age ") ferent roads, are seeking the same objective. ob-jective. Inspired by the same relentless energy and devouring ambition, DUTCH HOLDINGS. Within four years fhe Royal Dutch company acquired the richest fields in the Netherlsnds Indies. Its association with the Shell Transport ctimpany soon gave it control of the evhole Far East., Thereupon it established forty branch-, ee lit ail the producing countries of the: five continents, built a network of pe-. troleum aupply atatlona covering every j Important seaport on the globe, and . furnished these stationa by Its gigantic fleet: It erected innumerable refinenea and pipe llnea. and placed itself In direct di-rect touch with every important petroleum petro-leum market. Finally, wlthr typical hritlah au,lacltr. It threw rfown the KuMia. how. ,hlg .Kreement was not ratified b, Uovd GMr(re and Cle. CtoVl?, lh'""S September Another An-other effort to n,ch , understanding, applying only uHumania. was limited Cadmann. Bern,,, and Bratlano. Noveil 0,?.,w resumed and In a "" Kreemnt was !; n ' Ilamar Orecnweod 17w; ' " likewise was re- 'fnufe- I "P"" of Barthelofs m Syj'rrr. pr; have been ton il ranc "nd England Mos,M In CUlrly ,0 th district Of .cZn lT''' ,h" "sr-xnent of urtof' whicn "-'"erl for a b.i.fora.o..d - ; negolrauonl &,S'n,rtor ' ,h la i, a . n trance and -Eng- mcmy to Br,i2jfaI' ,lo'u'n' t,U-According t,U-According P"1"-" rd France, between in. ,J arrangement made England UT influence. I cede to It thi r frsuading us to ln ?hi.?r""rU "-ti granted! a considered """A Vance .hoiV th "cr"i'- ' of the MosTsT u,lran" one-half , Oeorge. follo.1" "PuL Uoyd teased to be u'u Uic- Dro- In a -most'V "lt!l ma"er grant our 1ndlr, "P1-" and to -reasonable.. 'ar hey were thelot to Sir r en L referred Br-Bntlsh Br-Bntlsh petrfc2mr G"nwood. The tested his J!? minister ' turn pro- consMJeratios?;' "lra to 've lu' he referred JfTsnce's elalma. Then Meantime, tVack LJJ George. -nd established Itself gauge of combat to the Standard Oil in its own territories. It established. ! itself In the I'nlted States, allying Itself, I with the Mexican Eagle company.' which already waa the greatest producer pro-ducer In Mexico. ! But the gigantic enterprise, with SC.-000.Doa.0o0 SC.-000.Doa.0o0 of Invested capital, did not surfeit the British sppetite for petro- j ieura. The government founded In ad- ; dlttun a public undertaking, directed' by Its own officials, called the Anglo- j Persian Oil company, assigning It aa a! sphere of activity 1'erste, and Mesopo- j tamla. Last of all. It organised the' British Controled OH Fields company, j to hold the Standard Oil la check. Thla last company la likewise controled en- j tirely by the government under a Toting Tot-ing trfaat. It la the second largest ag- I cregatlon of capital tn the industry. ' with $ 1 0.ooe.Ouo.tiOQ In funds; and its special mission Is to acquire oil proper! prop-er! lea In OntraJ America. There three vast organisations, supervised su-pervised by the British petroleum min- |