[Footnote 56: The majority of firms operating in Algeria are British companies registered under French law, just as the _Mexican Eagle_ (_El Aguila_) is a British company registered under Mexican law. The most important is the _Société co-intéressée des Pétroles algériens_, which Pearson founded with a capital of ten million francs, and in which he has retained a considerable interest. But the one which has given the best results is the _Société algérienne des Pétroles, de Tiliouanet_, whose oil yields 15 per cent. of petrol, 65 per cent. of illuminating oil, and 20 per cent. of paraffin residues.] [Footnote 57: The _Royal Dutch-Shell_ contemplates the formation of a French company with a capital of twenty-five million francs for the exploitation of the oil deposits of Madagascar. This company would take over the concessions of the _Sakalava Proprietary Oil-fields_, which is already working there.] CHAPTER XXI THE _STANDARD_ AND FRANCE On May 17, 1921, Mr. Hughes Wallace, the United States Ambassador, handed to France an official statement of his Government's grievances. He pointed out all the obstacles which American companies encountered in France, and asserted that _British companies did not meet with the same difficulties_. Now, as Mr. Hughes Wallace observed, France needed ten times the quantity of mazut that she was getting, and many French factories were idle for want of fuel. Thus there was room in the French market for both British and American firms. Mr. Wallace therefore asked that they should be treated on an equal footing. M. Laurent Eynac, under whom the Commissariat for Petrol had been re-established, without mentioning the Agreement which bound him to the British, replied by putting all the blame on the inevitable delays of official inquiries, which were "the same for everybody." But a few days afterwards, _Le Temps_ published an incomplete summary of the San Remo Agreement; it did not give the official text till July 25th.