The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-30

able as the first, because America adds
to her superiority in tonnage quasi
monopoly of the fuel which England
lacks. American oil in the furnaces
of great steamships-may not that be
the beginning Of the downfall Of the
British empire?
The British imperialists realized
this situation. They made up their
minds, and, having made. up their
minds. they began to act. By clever
twists, by silent scheming, by political,
commercial and diplomatic maneuver-
most all the oil reserves of the world.
Prospectors and representatives of
British high finance have scurried all
over the world, with full consent of
the government, in quest of new oil
deposits to conquer The most i'm
portant oil concerns engaged in active
exploitation, except the Standard,
were quickly assaiIed and conquered
by British capital. Under cover of
various commercial companies, the
Shell Transport, the Mexican Eagle,
the Burmah Oil, the Anglo-Persian
Oil, have added to their number since
the armistice the powerful trust of
Holland, the Royal-Dutch. Very clev-
erly the English have, at need known
how to associate themselves with Am
erican firms by investing capital in
the U. S. And, as result of these
lmaneuvers, British companies ara now
in exclusive control of 95 per cent of
the futurue world production of OIL
The British government learned at
least one lesson from the recent war.
That is to say, that the nation which
| controlled the oil industry controlled
commerce by sea, in view of the fact
that no coal burner can compete with
an oil-burning ship. Realizing this,
the imperialist government of Great
Britain is no longer content today to
encourage, favor, and defend it's ma
tionals. Better than this, it makes
conquests or establishes protectorates
having as essential object the reserva-
ton exclusively for it's nationals of
new oil-bearing territories, such as
Persia and Messopotamia. It is suf-
ficient to read the Treaty of Sevres to
see the underlying motive of British
negotiations: the desire to monopolize
the oil of Asia, and the anxiety to
keep out the U. S.
The British oil policy is not uniform.
Sometimes, when it seems possible,
she gets possession of proved oil
fields. Sometimes, in the case of a
country which would hold its own,
she negotiates for an advantageous
share in the profts-this is what hap
pened by the San Reno agreement, -
or she makes contracts ensuring abun-
dant supplies of the precious mineral
oil.
In general when state does not
4 fall in with her views quickly enough,
imperialist Britain does not recoil
from any means of pressure. This is
what led Admiral Degouy to write:
'as corollary to well-known negotia-
tions with one of the richest coun-
tries in oil in the Near East, the Brit
lsh Admiralty has organized and main
tanned on the Danube a numerous flo
tilla of gunboats and river monitors"
All this brot the desired result. At
present there is not a single oil pro-
ducing country where the English
have not obtained footing. At pres.
ent, England has oil stations at all
strategic points of the world. She
controls the Suez canal at both ends.
She has establishments at the Anti
podes, in East and West Indies, on the
west coast of South America, on the
coast of Africa, and at the Azores, etc.
Even the Panama canal itself is SER
iously menaced: The RoyalDutch
Shell has depot at one end of the
canal and another at the entrance to
the gulf
AS a result of this activity. other