THE REVOLUTION IN FUEL AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE June, 1920, patrons of the parliamentary game witnessed a singular spectacle in France : the Briand team and the Tardieu-Loucheur team, having determined, according to well-informed people, to wrest from the Millerand team the " cup " of power, launched a furious attack, strongly supported by flame projectors burning Mosul oil. It was the first occasion upon which this weapon was used in political battles. Thus the great public learnt of the arrival of mazut upon the field of international conflicts.
The peoples to-day contend for iron mines and oil fields just as their princes of old quarrelled over provinces. The coal of the Ruhr or of Teschen, the iron deposits of Lorraine, or the oil of Mesopotamia, are the stakes in the great games played round the tables of San Remo and Spa. The victors in the Great War, exhausted by their effort, renounce the glorious dream of liberating oppressed peoples, and are reduced to disputing among themselves for the fuel neces sary for their homes and industries.
In truth, however, the facts of the case, passing through the parliamentary prism, reach the public a little distorted. It might have been thought that Britain and France were quarrelling about the oil of Mosul. In reality, this field— and those of all French colonies—had already been promised to an Anglo-Dutch trust. The question which remains to be decided is whether America will be excluded from the division of the spoil, and whether France will indolently abandon her natural resources to foreign exploitation or whether our business men will wish to make something for themselves out of this dearly-bought wealth.
The subject brings us face to face with the problem of our alliances and the problem of our business methods. That is the reason why the main features of the contest are here recounted and discussed.