Those Who Make War Possible, by Spain and the World (1938)
Article from ‘Spain and the World’, September 30, 1938, London, UK
Those who produce and sell petrol.
The producing countries are, in the first place, the United States, Russia and Rumania, states which supply their own needs and export a large proportion of the production (the U.S.A., which imports about as much as it exports, furnishes to the Fascist powers alone more than half the world’s production), then Venezuela, Persia, the Dutch Indies, Mexico, Columbia, Iraq, Argentine, Peru and India, which export almost all they produce.
Who exploits these petrol wells? Excluding the U.S.A., four trusts share amongst themselves 86 per cent of the world’s needs. They are in order of importance (from 1934 figures): the Soviet Naphte Syndicate, the American Standard Oil, and two English companies. Royal Dutch Shell (of Dutch origin) and The Anglo-Persian (or Anglo-Iranian).
Those who supply petrol to Italy.
The suppliers to Italy are: Rumania, the U.S.A. (Standard Oil), U.S.S.R. and Iraq. In 1936, during the Abyssinian War, Iraq, thanks perhaps to the participation of Italian capital in the Iraq Petroleum Co., obtained 120 million tons for Italy; but after the conquest the Italian group renounced its participation in the Iraq Petroleum, a quarter of whose shares belong to the Anglo-Persian, another quarter to Royal Shell and a quarter each to the Cie. Francaise des Petroles and the allied Standard Oil Co.
Those who supply petrol to Germany.
Finally, Germany replenishes her supply through the U.S.A., the Dutch East Indies, Persia, Venezuela and the U.S.S.R.! A commercial agreement dated the 1st January, 1935, does not expire until 1939, and contracts for Russia to supply petrol to Hitlerian Germany, whose desire for war the Soviet Government is denouncing every day in heated terms and against which (provisionally?) Russia is directing all her diplomacy.
Those who transport the petrol.
Transport is guaranteed by tankers belonging, in some cases to private individuals (in a small proportion), in others to the above-mentioned trusts, and in other cases to governments. The Scandinavian countries in particular are fairly well specialized in petrol transport. Japan, Italy and Germany have only a small tonnage in petrol tankers. A few figures for 1934: Norway alone possessed 213 tankers for petrol transport, with a total tonnage of 1,507,000 tons; the three large anglo-american trusts possessed together a fleet of 563 ships totalling 5,288,000 tons; against this, Italy — the most supplied of the three Fascist States — had only 65 ships of a total tonnage 315,000 tons; the three Fascist powers together possessed a total of 116 ships totalling 582,000 tons.