The Americans themselves realize that they are about to lose their supremacy over oil. "While we were basking in a false security, lulled by the knowledge of our resources," the American _Nation_ wrote recently, "foreign companies silently and energetically took possession of the unexploited oil-fields." The _Mexican Eagle_, a British company, received vast concessions in Mexico. The _Shell_, another British group, established itself in many places. The _Royal Dutch_, which, in appearance at least, was originally a Dutch company, was founded to exploit the oil of the East Indies. Later, a fusion of the _Royal Dutch_ and the _Shell_ took place, and the _Mexican Eagle_ sheltered under the wings of the new company. The _Anglo-Persian_ was created to exploit Persia and the East, and the British Government subscribed £2,000,000, reserving the control for itself in order to supply the needs of the navy.[27] This company was for years closely connected with the _Royal Dutch_.[28] This gigantic aggregation of British interests, at the present time, owns or controls a great part of the oil of California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mexico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Rumania, Russia, Persia, Egypt, India, and the East Indies. Except in North America, many of the concessions are so vast that they exclude American companies from the most profitable oil-fields. However, adds the _Nation_, the experts of the United States Geological Survey were making disturbing discoveries that 40 per cent. of American oil was exhausted, and that, at the present rate of production, the exploitation would be complete in fifteen or twenty years, for home requirements were becoming so great that more oil would have to be imported than was being exported. In 1920, the imports exceeded the exports by 100 million barrels. And _British companies, closely connected with the British Government, are now in exclusive possession of 90 to 97 per cent. of the future world production_. What a change in the situation! Ten years ago, Britain possessed no oil, to-day she is independent, to-morrow she will be mistress. The feat has been accomplished by the silent efforts of a few men such as Sir Marcus Samuel, chairman of the _Shell_, Lord Cowdray (Pearson), Lord Curzon, formerly Viceroy of India, Sir John Cadman, technical adviser to the British Government, Professor in the University of Birmingham, and Chairman of the Inter-Allied Petroleum Conference during the War, Lord Strathcona, creator of the Canadian railways, who played a great part in the _Anglo-Persian_, and, above all, Admiral Lord Fisher. These men acted _even without the knowledge of the British people and its parliamentary representatives_. Their fellow-countrymen and their opponents only heard of their activities _when they had endowed their country with a world-wide oil empire_.