No provision is made in the contract for Rumanian, Galician and Russian oil, exploited jointly ; and above all, nothing is said about the price of the oil which is extracted and refined by the Shell and the Royal Dutch alone, which forms by far the greater part of our consumption--other oil being sold chiefly in the neighbouring countries of Central Europe.
Then who is to prevent the British trust from selling refined oil and mazut dearer to us than to the British ? Plausible pretexts will not be lacking, notably_that of freightage, our special flotilla being inadequate, besides sailing under the British flag.
It is no use saying that this would be an unfriendly action of which our British allies are incapable. For it is exactly how they treat us as regards another fuel—coal.
The whole world knows that all varieties of British coal are sold at a higher price here than in Britain. It is not merely the result of a " combine " of greedy merchants, such as is everywhere to be found. It is the application of a far-reaching political plan. One of the principal war aims of Great Britain was to destroy the German metal industry, which was competing too successfully with Birmingham and Sheffield throughout the world. She has succeeded in stripping from her rival the rich deposits of Lorraine, and in attaching them to France. At a single stroke the latter has become the richest proprietor of ore in Europe.
Is it likely that Britain has ruined for twenty years her German competitor in order to allow another equally dan gerous one to arise west of the Rhine ? Fortunately, coke counts at least as much as iron in the cost of production of steel. It is necessary, therefore, that France should pay dearly for her coal ; that is why British coal is sold to us at an augmented price ; that, again, is why Mr. Lloyd George has insisted that we should pay five gold marks more for the Ruhr coal than its cost price. Henceforward, our metal industry must pay 200 francs a ton for the same coal which the British will get for 84 francs and the Germans for 72 francs. Any revival of French industry becomes impossible.
But oil will play, in future, and particularly in the future of mechanical engineering, a part practically equal to coal. It is, therefore, useful to be able to increase the price of oil also to foreigners if that becomes necessary, and this will be easily possible to the country which has control of the oil resources of France.
We have no right to blame British statesmen if they act and reason thus ; they are playing their proper part.
But what shall we say of the French statesmen and busi ness men who put them in a position to play this game with us ?