The _Royal Dutch-Shell_ has rendered the same service to the British Government in Egypt. "We have conducted our business on the same lines in Egypt," said Sir Marcus Samuel. "_In order to help the Government, we have operated in the Egyptian market in the same way as in India._" In exchange the _Royal Dutch_ counts on the support of the British Government. This is the case in Venezuela, where the Venezuelan Government is trying to establish its rights over concessions which the company covets. And not in vain, for on March 7, 1921, it was announced in France that the Venezuelan Courts of Justice had upheld the validity of the fifty years' concessions which had been granted to the _Colon Development_, in which the _Royal Dutch_ is interested, through the _Burlington Investment_. But in Mesopotamia the company seeks the support of France against the _Anglo-Persian_, and is not opposed to American participation. I believe, rather, that it desires the support of the French Government in case the British Government, hypnotized by the _Anglo-Persian_, deserts it. In any case, it hopes to play off one against the other. Deterding's ambition is to crush the _Standard Oil_. He is the declared enemy of the _Standard_, Mr. W. Teagle, for whom he has some sympathy, excepted. When people tell him that he will never succeed in getting the better of the _Standard_, with its enormous capital, he replies that he has the means to fight against all the dollars that the _Standard_ can gather. Has he not the Rothschild millions at his disposal? Besides, he has great advantages over the _Standard_. I have already mentioned the cost of production of the _Royal Dutch_ in the Dutch Indies. It is considerably lower than that of the American Trust.[13] In a price war this would give it an incontestable superiority. The _Royal Dutch-Shell_ possesses such reserves of oil that the question of exhaustion does not arise for it; and it extends over the whole world, whereas the _Standard_ has been able to root itself firmly in America alone. Several European States have crossed swords with it, for example, Austria, which definitely closed Galicia against it in 1911. Its high-handed methods have made many enemies. The _Royal Dutch_, on the contrary, thanks to its clever and elastic policy, has insinuated itself into the good graces of most governments. Almost everywhere, public opinion is on its side.