The United States now understood the reasons for the attitude of silent hostility which France had adopted towards American oil companies. The San Remo Agreement aroused grave anxiety in Washington. President Harding displayed very clearly his intention not to tolerate such a policy. He made representations to the British and French Governments and protested against the exclusion of America from the Franco-British partition of the oil of Asia; he declared firmly that the British monopoly countersigned by France at San Remo was not to be tolerated, and that United States citizens were not to be ousted through the complacency of France towards the imperialism of London. The _Washington Post_ wrote as follows: "Oil is indispensable to America, and American companies only provide inadequate quantities at excessive prices. The complacent arrangement between France and Britain for the partition of the oil resources of lands which are not in their possession is subject to revision upon the request of the United States, intent on the pursuit of their naval policy." By subservience to British policy in the East, France was to reap the enmity of the United States. Its effects were soon felt, for, at the Brussels Conference in the following October, the "unofficial" delegate of the American Government declared that his country would not participate in any international loan for the capitalization of the German indemnity. This was one hope definitely lost, upon which France had long been relying. The same thing happened with the repayment of the French debt to the United States: France fondly hoped that the Americans would renounce what they had lent her during the War, just as Louis XVI renounced the millions which he advanced to their infant Republic, but when President Harding was sounded indirectly upon the subject, he returned a pointed refusal.