OIL SUPPLIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18414, 21 May 1920, Page 5

OIL SUPPLIES.

SAFEGUARDING BRITISH INTERESTS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. WASHINGTON, Mav 18. Tho British Government intends to safeguard British interests in and accessibility to petroleum supplies, and is taking steps to make the Army and Navy independent of United States supplies in any future war. It regards President Wilson’s report as antiBritish in tone, and unnecessarily theatrical, and characterises the Standard Oil Company’s complaint as not fair play, and peculiarly audacious from tho viewpoint of tin© ruthless policy that company has pursued for forty years.

UNITED STATES OILFIELDS. WASHINGTON, May 18. According to Government statistics 40 por cent of the United States, oil producing fields are exhausted. 'I he United States furnishes 69 per cent of tho world’s oil supply.