The _British Controlled Oil-fields_ is at present negotiating for the control of important concessions in Panama and Nicaragua. It controls all those of British Guiana, nearly all those of Honduras, but I fear it is about to lose those it had in Costa Rica. In order to obtain them, Great Britain did not hesitate to foment revolution in this little Republic. Unable to obtain anything from the established Government, it helped to place in power the revolutionary President Tinoco, from whom it got all it wanted: more than 6,000 square miles granted to the _British Controlled Oil-fields_. Unfortunately Tinoco has been overthrown: the regular Government, restored to power, hastened to annul these concessions. Great Britain, to compel it to ratify these concessions, stirred up a war between Costa Rica and Panama, while she sent the cruiser _Cambrian_ to the coast of Costa Rica in order to increase the pressure. Events went against her. Costa Rican troops invaded Panama. A landing took place on February 28, 1921, on the Pacific coast, south of the Dulce Gulf, the eastern shore of which is common to both countries, and another less important one on the Atlantic, towards Bocas del Toro. Panama lost the territory of Coto. Mr. Alves, Chairman of the _British Controlled Oil-fields_, set out in March 1921 for Costa Rica, to study the question at issue. But the United States stepped in; and Judge White, as arbitrator, pronounced in favour of Costa Rica. On August 26, 1921, an American naval detachment assisted the Costa Rican forces to take definite possession of the contested territory, in spite of the indignant protests of the Government of Panama against the violent measures of which it was the victim. There is continual warfare among the little republics of Central America. The imbroglio of British and American affairs around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea (_British Controlled Oil-fields_, _Mexican Eagle_, _Royal Dutch Shell_, _Mexican Petroleum_, _Standard Oil_) makes this region _the Balkans of the oil world_. The _British Controlled Oil-fields_, the board of which includes a British admiral and a Member of Parliament, is the result of long investigations pursued by Lord Fisher on behalf of the Admiralty. The results of these studies are being methodically turned to account in order to ensure to Great Britain the supremacy of the sea by means of the supremacy of oil. CHAPTER XIII POLITICAL TENDENCIES OF THE _ROYAL DUTCH_ The British Oil Empire