-THE SENATE CREATES RESERVES OF OIL.
This article, summarised or reproduced in the American Press (Philadelphia Public Ledger, gth April), created a great stir among the public and still more in political circles. The veil was rudely torn away, and behind the motley curtain of the Anglo-Dutch trusts America suddenly discovered the long, prehensile fingers which were beginning to filch barrels of petroleum all over the world, and even within her own borders.
Yankees are good sportsmen ; not a word of recrimi nation was uttered against perfidious Albion. On the contrary, indeed, in the course of a discussion upon naval appropriations on 28th April, Senator Phelan of California, after denouncing the camouflage of the British Government in acting under cover of a Dutch trust, added : " I am not criticising Great Britain. I admire the foresight of the men who, at the helm of State, are steering the State so that her ships and her navy will be always provided with the essential fuel. But if Great Britain for some reason enters into the field under the name of the Royal Dutch Shell, why should not the United States enter into the field as long as individuals are apparently disqualified and lack equipment or protection ? " Senator Jones, President of the Committee on Commerce, spoke in a similar strain : " I admire Great Britain for what she is doing, how she stands behind her citizens, how she stands behind her industries, and I would like to take a leaf out of her book. Let us stand behind our people as
she stands behind hers. Let us encourage our people as she encourages hers. Let us do what is necessary for our interests as she does whatever is necessary for her interests." The lesson had indeed gone home. Whatever admiration the Americans may have for a trick skilfully brought off, they are not the people to take it lying down. The first precaution was obvious—to close, for the future, to foreigners, and particularly to the British, the oil-bearing lands within the actual territory of the Union. The American law, which gives the subsoil to the owner of the surface, renders the acquisition of mineral deposits by foreigners too easy. An end had to be put to this scandal. Since the law could not be altered without long debates, an ingenious expedient was devised. On 28th April, 1920, a vote of the Senate authorised the Secretary for the Navy to set apart as " reserves," in any State he wished, petroli ferous lands, which then were not to be sold or leased without his permission. The reason invoked was the necessity of safeguarding supplies of oil for the navy ; but the result was to render possible henceforward the exclusion from all oil concessions of companies whose origins or tendencies were suspect to the Government. The United States in their turn adopted the policy of the " closed door."