But if we show any signs of an understanding with America will not Britain immediately cut off supplies ? However diligent our industrialists may be, it will be years before our colonies are in a position adequately to supply the French market ; and the Shell—Royal Dutch can stop deliveries at once, leaving our lorries without petrol and our industries without fuel oil.
The threat has been made. It would be formidable if no other means of supply existed. But the Standard Oil Company is ready to provide us immediately with sufficient for our needs. Witness its affiliated company floated at Paris on 1st April, 192o, with a capital of 25 million francs, and the contracts it made on that date with our " refiners." But this would be to substitute an American monopoly for the British monopoly 1 We need not be afraid. The French market is much too important for the Shell—Royal Dutch to abandon it in pique to its rival. On the very day on which the Standard Oil Company receives permission to sell petroleum and mazut in our markets, the Anglo-Dutch trust will solicit orders, offering a lower price.
Do not object that Britain has other means of pressure than blackmailing us about fuel oil. We are, of course, dependent on her for coal—and she lets us know it—and also for shipping and credits. But there is not one of these advantages that America could not equally supply ; in fact, we can add to them corn, cotton and meat, which Great Britain cannot give us. And if American freights are still high, in a few years' time, when the American merchant marine has outstripped in tonnage that of Britain, no doubt the advantage in prices will be with the former.
In all security, we can henceforward substitute free competition for the always burdensome regime of the single provider. The Standard Oil and the Shell—Royal Dutch companies will rival each other in offering us the lowest prices. And our industries, sure of cheap and ample supplies of fuel, will be able to modernise at their con venience their methods of obtaining power, and should develop rapidly.
Then, at peace as regards the present, we may turn our eyes towards the future. It is not good that a great country like France should be absolutely dependent upon other countries for one of the first essentials of her existence. It exposes her to too much pressure and too much bargain ing, the danger of which has been proved by the recent diplomatic negotiations.
While our Government grants concessions impartially to the British as to the Americans, it might well reserve some few of the richest and the best situated for our own nationals.
True, we have not as yet the prospectors and the necessary plant ; but as soon as our immediate needs are assured, thanks to free competition, we shall have ample leisure to train technical experts.
Already there is talk of instituting special courses at the University of Strasbourg, situated near to the petroleum deposits of Pechelbronn. Moreover, our engineering indus try has plenty of time to organise the manufacture of pipes, centrifugal pumps, storage tanks, tank wagons, etc. Thus, if she takes the trouble, France may have, within ten years, an oil industry of her own, ensuring her plentiful supplies from oil fields in her own territories, exploited by French companies with materials manufactured in France ; and so she may win autonomy for herself in a matter of vital importance.
There is nothing Utopian about this policy. It was outlined on the very morrow of the Armistice by the official Commissioner-General, M. Henry Berenger, at a time when the secret warfare of the two trusts had not recommenced. It is the only policy which will ensure at one and the same time the rapid development of our colonial petroleum, immediate and cheap supplies for our industries, the independence of our country and the maintenance, by a wise balance, of our alliances and our friendships.'