XVIII. The Petroleum Consortium 207 XIX. How Great Britain Succeeded in Winning France over to Her Side in the Struggle with the United States 215 XX. Great Britain and the Oil-fields of the French Colonial Empire 234 XXI. The _Standard_ and France 239 XXII. Conclusion: the World in 1923 244 PART I THE WORLD'S OIL CHAPTER I "WHO HAS OIL HAS EMPIRE!" The question of oil has become one of the most vital in all countries. Its importance is such that even the most solid political alliances are subordinate to it. The Great Powers have all an "oil policy." The United States, where the most powerful trust is an oil trust--the _Standard Oil Company_--the United States, which control 70 per cent. of the oil production of the world, have decided not to leave the question to private initiative alone, but to start a vigorous oil policy both at home and abroad. The American Senate recently decided to create the "United States Oil Corporation to develop new petroleum fields," while Mr. Bedford, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the _Standard Oil Company_, asked the Government to lend its support to any Americans who were soliciting oil concessions throughout the world. This support, which even Wilson--hostile to trusts as he was--did not refuse, was granted very energetically by Mr. Harding: three European States have just had experience of it. Britain, with her usual foresight, understood long ago the importance of oil, and took the necessary action. In the work of exploration alone she is at the present moment spending considerable sums, and she will soon have nearly all the remaining oil-fields of the world in her hands. France alone remains behind, hesitates, changes her mind, and allows herself to be despoiled, not only of the region of Mosul, one of the richest oil-fields of the world, which was formally promised to her by the Agreements of 1916, but also of the few modest oil deposits which she possesses in her colonies. For these are almost all exploited by British firms; and by the Agreement of San Remo the French Government has, in addition, promised to reserve a large share for "British co-operation" in new companies which may be established there.