The British Controlled Oil-fields
The Anglo-Persian Oil is no longer sufficient for Great Britain, which founded a new company in 1918, the British Controlled Oil-fields, specially commissioned to fight the Standard Oil. Established under Canadian law with an initial capital of £12,000,000, increased later to £40,000,000, and capable of a further increase up to £159,000,000, the British Controlled Oil-fields will be one of the greatest financial powers of the world. Like the Anglo-Persian, it is entirely in the hands of the British Government under the system of the voting trust. It seems that an immense tract of oil-bearing territory exists from Mexico to the Argentine, a continuation of that of the United States. Already Mexico has become the second greatest producing State in the world; and oil has been found in almost all the South American States, even in Brazil and on the plateaux of Bolivia. Of these immense deposits the British Controlled Oil-fields wishes to gain possession on behalf of the British Government, thus completing the work of the Royal Dutch-Shell in Venezuela and in the neighbourhood of the Panama Canal. It possesses properties of very great value from Mexico to Brazil, in Trinidad, Venezuela and Costa Rica. In 1920 it began operations in Ecuador, and it is at present prospecting in Brazil, in the State of Bahia, where bituminous seepages and traces of asphalt abound. Its concessions actually surround two-thirds of the Caribbean Sea: they are situated in the States of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, British Guiana, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, and the island of Trinidad. The concessions of the British Controlled Oil-fields are nearly always on the sea coast—or rather in close proximity to the sea—which is a considerable advantage. It has expressly chosen them, on both the Atlantic and the Pacific, as a precaution in case war should break out between Britain and the United States; for, even with the help of the Japanese fleet, the British Navy might not be able to seize the Panama Canal. And its units must be in a position to replenish their stores of fuel without being obliged to make a long detour round the Magellan Straits.
The British Controlled Oil-fields is at present negotiating for the control of important concessions in Panama and Nicaragua. It controls all those of British Guiana, nearly all those of Honduras, but I fear it is about to lose those it had in Costa Rica. In order to obtain them, Great Britain did not hesitate to foment revolution in this little Republic. Unable to obtain anything from the established Government, it helped to place in power the revolutionary President Tinoco, from whom it got all it wanted: more than 6,000 square miles granted to the British Controlled Oil-fields. Unfortunately Tinoco has been overthrown: the regular Government, restored to power, hastened to annul these concessions. Great Britain, to compel it to ratify these concessions, stirred up a war between Costa Rica and Panama, while she sent the cruiser Cambrian to the coast of Costa Rica in order to increase the pressure. Events went against her. Costa Rican troops invaded Panama. A landing took place on February 28, 1921, on the Pacific coast, south of the Dulce Gulf, the eastern shore of which is common to both countries, and another less important one on the Atlantic, towards Bocas del Toro. Panama lost the territory of Coto.
Mr. Alves, Chairman of the British Controlled Oil-fields, set out in March 1921 for Costa Rica, to study the question at issue. But the United States stepped in; and Judge White, as arbitrator, pronounced in favour of Costa Rica. On August 26, 1921, an American naval detachment assisted the Costa Rican forces to take definite possession of the contested territory, in spite of the indignant protests of the Government of Panama against the violent measures of which it was the victim.
There is continual warfare among the little republics of Central America. The imbroglio of British and American affairs around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea (British Controlled Oil-fields, Mexican Eagle, Royal Dutch Shell, Mexican Petroleum, Standard Oil) makes this region the Balkans of the oil world.
The British Controlled Oil-fields, the board of which includes a British admiral and a Member of Parliament, is the result of long investigations pursued by Lord Fisher on behalf of the Admiralty. The results of these studies are being methodically turned to account in order to ensure to Great Britain the supremacy of the sea by means of the supremacy of oil.
POLITICAL TENDENCIES OF THE ROYAL DUTCH