The British Admiralty declared that it was important to free the Royal Navy from the tutelage of the trusts. It was voted the money required to obtain an interest in the operations of the _Burmah Oil_, thus ensuring for itself a share of the oil of Burmah; and in May 1914 it bought half the shares of the _Anglo-Persian Oil_, which holds a thirty-years' monopoly for the exploitation of oil deposits in Persia, excepting only the five northern provinces. For Persian territory on the borders of the Caspian Sea was always reserved for Russian influence. The _Anglo-Persian_ began obscurely. Its inception, in 1909, passed unnoticed. It was founded, _without an appeal to the public to subscribe its capital_, by the _Burmah Oil_, a company at that time better known in Scotland than on the London Stock Exchange. Its first object was to take over the concessions which the Australian, d'Arcy, had obtained in 1901, and which covered the enormous area of 500,000 square miles. D'Arcy had obtained these concessions from the Persian Government for the infinitesimal sum of 200,000 francs, of which 100,000 francs only were paid in cash and the rest in shares. The Persian Government was to receive 16 per cent. of whatever profit d'Arcy might make. It was much disappointed, for the first investigations along the Turko-Persian frontier were really discouraging. D'Arcy spent five million francs in vain, and he was thinking of abandoning the whole affair when he heard of oozings and gushings in the Shustar region, 140 miles north of Mohammerah, to the north of the Persian Gulf. D'Arcy recognized the presence of oil, but had to face the construction of a pipe-line and refinery, and to find new capital for these purposes. Certain foreign capitalists made him tempting offers, but D'Arcy, who had found a staunch supporter in Admiral Fisher, the reorganizer of the British Navy in the twentieth century, resolved that the Persian concessions _should remain under British control_. He obtained the financial assistance of the _Burmah Oil_, and the latter founded the _Anglo-Persian_ in 1909. The Royal Navy had already 150 ships burning oil. Pretyman, a Lord of the Admiralty, got Lord Strathcona appointed to the chairmanship of the _Anglo-Persian_, the first results of which were encouraging, so that the British Government could direct its future. The capital of the new company was very quickly used up. It constructed a pipe-line 145 miles long to bring its oil to the Persian Gulf, and a refinery on the island of Abadan which cost a great deal. But as the prospecting then taking place revealed the existence in Persia of rich deposits, a commission of geological experts, presided over by a rear-admiral, was sent to the spot by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to make an inquiry. On the conclusions embodied in its report, the British Government decided to take control of the business. In the month of May