In this manner were created the _Société pour l'Exploitation des Pétroles_ in July, and the _Société Maritime des Pétroles_ in August 1919, the former with a capital of 20 million francs, and the latter of 10 million francs. In the first of these companies five out of nine of the directors bear names well-known in the _Royal Dutch_: Deterding, Gulbenkian (the Talleyrand of oil), Colijn, who at one time nearly succeeded Deterding and who has been Minister of War in the Netherlands, Cohen, Jonckheer, Hugo. France has only a minority on the Board of this "French" company, for M. Deutsch de la Meurthe, whose influence brought over the Cartel of Ten from the side of the _Standard_ to that of the _Royal Dutch_, is little more than the mouthpiece of London and The Hague. The _Royal Dutch_, besides, subscribed 60 per cent. of the capital of the _Société pour l'Exploitation des Pétroles_, though it now holds only 49 per cent. In the _Société Maritime des Pétroles_, the disproportion is still greater; out of seven directors, two only are French, and have played an important part in French politics during the last few years. It is to them, in particular, and to the skill of Gulbenkian, who conducted the negotiations very cleverly, that the _Royal Dutch_ owes its triumph in French official circles.[45] But the British Government is not content with these two companies founded by the _Royal Dutch_, (The second is so little French that 19,600 out of the 20,000 shares of its capital belong to the Anglo-Dutch trust, and 400 only have been subscribed by the two French members of its council.) In spite of the opposition of Parliament, it authorized the _Anglo-Persian_ to found a company much more important than the other two put together, a company with a capital of 227 million, the _Société des Huiles de Pétrole_. This Franco-British _Anglo-Persian_ was created by one of the most powerful personalities of the financial world in Eastern, Southern, and Western Europe,[46] to whom Great Britain owed the policy she was then following against the Turkish Empire.[47] Through the agency of Sir Basil Zaharoff, who is interested both in the _Société Navale de l'Ouest_ and in the _Banque de la Seine_, and holds 70 per cent. of the capital of Vickers, this British firm undertook to construct immediately, giving preference over the other trusts, the whole of the tank-boats, of 10,000 tons on an average, destined to ensure to the new "French" company the monopoly of the transport of oil for the French market. France will depend for its future supplies, in great part, on this Franco-British _Anglo-Persian_. Its stations will be found on all her coasts, as well as in her African possessions. The _Société Générale des Huiles de Pétrole_ will erect vast reservoirs at Dunkirk, Le Havre, Rouen, Saint-Nazaire, La Pallice, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Bizerta, Algiers, Oran, Casablanca, and Dakar (Senegal).