As the United States will probably still have the advantage for another dozen years as regards oil supplies--for it is not very likely that they will exhaust their reserves so soon as 1927, as the Smithsonian Institute pretends--, the new enterprise set out to gain immediate control in the matter of tank-steamers. Everything being thus prepared in the banks and chancelleries, it only remained to drive out the _Standard Oil_ from the French market and to establish firmly the monopoly of purchase and importation granted provisionally to the Petrol Commission. On May 6, 1919, M. Henry Bérenger announced in the Chamber the profits which remained for the State under the consortium system--profits not paid into the Treasury, but devoted to a special object, the development of the petroleum industry; and on June 17th, M. Klotz brought forward a Bill to establish this monopoly permanently. The _Standard_, which, since the Armistice, had been impatiently waiting for the time when restrictions upon trade in France would be removed, no longer had any illusions about the desire of the Commission to expel it from that country. Although the _Standard_ had resumed its freedom from the conclusion of hostilities, it had none the less continued its supplies of oil to France, and knowing the Treasury was in difficulties, had accepted 5 per cent. bonds in payment. Now, in self-defence, it declared that it refused all credit. The Oil Commission, in thus breaking free, had taken precautions against being caught unprovided. Three days after the rupture with the _Standard_, on November 25th, it obtained a credit of £2,000,000 from the _Royal Dutch_, which was increased on January 5, 1920, to £5,000,000. The _Standard Oil_ was ejected and the great Franco-British trust established in its place, thanks to this long-date contract. But shortly after the fall of the Clemenceau Cabinet, this success came near to being undone. No new commissioner had been appointed in place of Henry Bérenger: a high official of the Exchequer was given the title of Director-General. The politics of oil, when we needed a real Petroleum Department, as in Britain, were reduced to the common level of current events. For more than a month (February-March, 1920), what remained of the Petrol Commission was left at a loose end, only indispensable deliveries were made. A state of anarchy ruled. The stocks, which had, until then, been laid in four months in advance, fell to almost nothing. The _Standard Oil_ took advantage of this to regain its footing.