-THE INVESTMENT OF THE PANAMA CANAL.
In the meantime, thanks to American capital, the construction of the Panama Canal advanced rapidly ; a few years hence, half the liners of the world would be passing through the Caribbean Sea and wishing to replenish their supplies of fuel. Thus there was an incentive to discover and exploit any oil fields there might be close to the great shipping route.
Already another British group, outwardly distinct, had established itself in Mexico. The rich fields of Tampico, situated right upon the shores of the Gulf, were a particu larly attractive prey. The Pearson group acquired interests there, and formed the Mexican Eagle Oil Company (rgir).
But hereupon the New Yorkers began to take alarm. North Americans are in the habit of considering Mexico as their Algeria or Morocco ; they look upon it as a preserve for their future expansion. The Mexican Republic passed its days in peace so long as the dictator, Porfirio Diaz, reserved all railway and oil concessions for the Harriman and Rockefeller trusts ; but immediately the legal Govern ment displayed its intention of negotiating with European groups as well, civil war broke out. Extemporary generals and lawyers on the make placed themselves, with their bands, in the pay of the rivals, and were duly supplied with money and munitions, the one across the land frontier, and the others through the Gulf ports. Any brigand chief lucky enough to threaten Tampico was sure of getting subsidies and arms from one side or the other. It was the period of pronunciamentos in the Spanish style, in which the gold of the British and American trusts played a barely disguised part. The struggle still goes on ; the recent assassination of Carranza was only an incident in it. Rockefeller and Lord Cowdray continue to make war on each other with the help of Mexican condottieri ; and impassioned discussions of the different constitutional programs only hide at bottom the opposing interests of the Standard Oil and the Mexican Eagle.
The Pearson group, however, did not confine its activities to the country of Villa and Carranza. During 1912 and
1913 it had succeeded in obtaining the grant of important oil concessions from the various Governments in Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, and even Ecuador. This would have given it, in point of fact, a monopoly of the supply of oil to all the shipping which passed through the Panama Canal. Were the United States going to let slip the absolute control of this world-highway which had cost them so dearly in treasure and in toil ? There followed, not without surprise to some, a demand by the Washington Government for the cancellation of these concessions as an infringement of the Monroe Doctrine—a bold deduction, of which the old President would assuredly never have dreamt in 1823 ! Thus, under the pressure of the " in terests," are great principles given unlooked-for applica tions. . . . Besides, in the modern world, the monopoly of an oil field may actually offer the same dangers as an armed invasion. However that may be, the Washington Cabinet persisted in its veto, and the concessions to the Pearson group were withdrawn.
Britain, naturally, did not give up her scheme. Since, less fortunate than at Suez, she had allowed the control of the Panama Canal to escape her, she must at least have control of the supply of fuel and stores to the shipping which passed through it. From now onwards, however, it was necessary to act with greater prudence and through the intermediary of a group more acceptable to the United States.
Accordingly, the Shell Transport proceeded to establish itself in Trinidad (a British colony), then in Venezuela and Colombia. To quiet all fears, it had the ingenuity to associate itself with American firms where necessary. For instance, by joint action with the American Carib Syndicate, it formed the Colon Development Company as a British company. Subsequently it transpired that all the British shares are held by the Burlington Investment Company, which is itself dependent upon the Shell Transport. The latter thus enjoys control of an oil undertaking at the very entrance to the Canal.