The British Government, anxious not to obstruct the private negotiations of the _Royal Dutch-Shell_ and the Soviets, got out of the difficulty very skilfully by giving to this latter clause a restricted interpretation. On May 15, 1922, in the House of Commons, Mr. Chamberlain went so far as to declare that Article 6 and the other analogous provisions of the San Remo Agreement would only become effective if French and British nationals decided jointly to acquire specific concessions. Nationals of a single country, like the British trusts, would therefore retain complete liberty of action. If, in the light of these explanations, one appreciates the threat of monopoly contained in the insertion, at the instance of the British delegation, of Clause 7 in the Memorandum of May 2, 1922, stipulating that in cases where the exploitation of property formerly belonging to foreigners could be assured only by incorporating them in a general group, the preferential right to the restitution of the property should not apply, one is driven to wonder what in such circumstances has become of the cordial "Franco-British co-operation" spoken of in the San Remo preamble. Would it not be merely an empty formula? * * * * * For a long time past, the _Royal Dutch-Shell_ had been striving to obtain a grasp of the oil deposits in Russia, and thus to realize, by arrangement with the British Government, its dream of world hegemony in oil. Its only reason for not amalgamating with the _Anglo-Persian_ and the _Burmah Oil_ at the beginning of 1922 was fear of American reprisals. The question was much debated, but after considerable hesitation Mr. Lloyd George refused to give his consent; so soon after the Naval Pact of Washington it would have caused something approaching a sensation in the United States and would have appeared intentionally provocative. As soon as Britain had signed the trade agreement with Moscow, the _Royal Dutch_ opened negotiations with the Soviet representatives, and it was not long before these relations bore fruit in the sale of 10,000 tons of oil to the _Asiatic Petroleum_, one of the _Royal Dutch-Shell_ subsidiaries. I may mention here that the signatories on behalf of the co-operatives of Russian producers were Krassin, Rakovsky, Mrs. Varvara Polovtsef, Victor Nogin, and Basil Krysin. The notorious agreement between the _Shell_ and the Soviets, which agitated the Press of the whole world and produced a scandal which almost wrecked the Conference, was not concluded at Genoa; it was drafted in London during February in the following form:-- The Russian Soviet Government is prepared to give consideration to a proposal by which the sale of all oil products available for export from the various oil-fields of Russia would be placed in the hands of a syndicate formed upon the following basis:-- The initial capital will be provided by equal contributions from the Russian Government and the foreign group.