ABSTRACT
FROM what follows one may judge the remarkable foresight and skill of the small group of business men and statesmen who govern and maintain the gigantic edifice of an Empire which Rome alone has equalled. Even before the War, at a time when no one was yet thinking of it, they had a clear vision of the serious consequences which the coming of oil fuel would entail upon the balance of power and the destinies of their country. All were aware, by a long-standing tradition, that the British Empire is founded upon its deposits of coal. From the moment when another fuel threatened to oust coal, it became necessary to gain possession of the substitute, to obtain over oil the same supremacy they already had over coal.
