-SIR E. MACKAY EDGAR'S CHALLENGE.
Some days later, long before the departments at Washing ton had examined their files, the reply came from London, precise, brutal, arrogantly impertinent and ironic. In Lord Northcliffe's Times, Sir Edward Mackay Edgar, Bart., suddenly displayed the results of the painstaking subter ranean labours of Sir Marcus Samuel, Lord Curzon, Sir John Cadman and other " petroleum statesmen." He wrote : " I should say that two-thirds of the improved fields of Central and South America are in British hands. In Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, a decisive and really overwhelming majority of the petroleum concessions are held by British subjects. They will be developed by British capital. The Alves group, whose holdings encircle practi cally two-thirds of the Caribbean Sea, is wholly British, working under arrangements which ensure that perpetual control of its undertakings shall remain in British hands. No American citizen and no American group has acquired or ever could acquire any such position in Central America as that which enterprise and personality have secured for M. Alves. Or take again that greatest of all oil organisa tions, the Shell group. It owns exclusively or controls interests in every important oil field in the world, including the United States, Russia, Mexico, the Dutch East Indies, Rumania, Egypt, Venezuela, Trinidad, India, Ceylon, the Malay States, North and South China, Siam, the Straits Settlements, and the Philippines." Having described this world-wide stranglehold, Sir Edward added pitilessly :— " We shall have to wait a few years before the full advantages of the situation shall begin to be reaped, but that that harvest eventually will be a great one there can be no manner of doubt. To the tune of many millions of
pounds a year, America before very long will have to purchase from British companies, and to pay for in dollar currency in progressively increasing proportion, the oil she cannot do without and is no longer able to furnish from her own store. I estimate that, if their present curve of consumption, especially of high-grade products, is main tained, Americans in ten years will be under the necessity of importing 500 million barrels of oil yearly at $2 a barrel— a very low figure—and that means an annual payment of $1,000,000,000 per annum, most, if not all, of which will find its way into British pockets." Anticipating an American counter-attack, Sir Edward flung this challenge : " With the exception of Mexico, and to a lesser extent of Central America, the outer world is securely barricaded against an American invasion in force. There may be small, isolated sallies, but there can never be a massed attack. The British position is impregnable." And, to conclude, he added ironically : " This is no revelation. The United States experts have been well aware of this situation for more than a year. But Congress and public opinion were not on their guard. The public at large, convinced that America is an immense reservoir of petroleum, and never having seen its engines stop for want of oil, took it for granted that petroleum is a product which grows naturally, like apples on apple trees. Un fortunately for them—and fortunately for us—their eyes have been opened too late."