One day, while at General Headquarters, I expressed a desire to see the methods by which all that world of activity secured its necessary supplies of petroleum products regularly, when once they had arrived in France in bulk. A few days later, I was, accordingly, allowed to visit the immense central depot at Calais, at which all the petroleum products required for use in the organization of transport were dealt with. It is safe to say that at no centre in the world did there exist such an extensive petroleum depot, nor anywhere else was there an organization upon whose perfect working so much depended. Though motor spirit necessarily occupied the first position of importance, practically the whole range of products was dealt with. The motor spirit was received in bulk, but at the depot had to be measured into the familiar 2-gallon can (which was made on the spot) and sent up country in special trains each day. Specially coloured tins denoted the best quality of the spirit, and it was that which was reserved for the numerous aerodromes in France and Flanders. The magnitude of that branch of the depot might be guessed when I state that at the time of my visit considerably over 2,000,000 2-gallon petrol tins were being either stored or filled for up country dispatch. All kinds of lubricants were also essential for the purposes of war, for even motor spirit itself would be of little use for the internal combustion engines, if the engines could not secure their regular supplies of lubricating oils. These, too, had to be dispatched with remarkable regularity to every section of the battle zones, whilst, as I have suggested earlier, the daily requirements of war necessitated the distribution of illuminating oil in large quantities. But no reference to petroleum’s part in the great European war would be complete were it not to include mention of the way in which supplies of toluol assisted in securing victory to the Allies. Toluol, as is known, is necessary for the production of high explosives, and in the early stages of the great conflict, the output of high explosives was considerably restricted by the absence of sufficient quantities of this necessary explosive primary. It was at that time that a discovery of the utmost importance was made, for, as the result of investigations carried out at the Cambridge University, it was found that the heavy petroleums of Borneo contained large percentages of toluol. Sir Marcus Samuel, Bart., the Chairman (and the founder) of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, Ltd., lost no time in apprising the British Government of the discovery, for it is in the Borneo oils that the Shell Company and its allied concerns are chiefly interested. The offer for the delivery of these immense quantities of toluol was eagerly accepted by the British and Allied Governments, and from that time onward, the supply of high explosives was practically unlimited.