THE GREAT OIL WAR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12586, 17 October 1911, Page 7

THE GREAT OIL WAR.

TWO SURVIVING FIRMS LIKELY

TO SHARE THE SPOILS,

LONDON, Sept. 26. The great oil war has now reached a pitch that is too desperate to last. There are now two companies alone left m the field as regards British sales, the third competitor, a Russian company, which was just beginning to make its presence known, having "been bought up by *h(f^Standard *Oil tSbmpariy- ' Ths British firm is the Shell Company, with its link of corporations m which Sir Marcus Samuel is the directing spirit. "Petrol is not affected to any great extent," said Mr Vincent, a director of Messrs Gamago's, who buys for his firm,, "but. the change m the price of paraffin is extraordinary. It is more than SO per cent, cheaper, now than it was before the war began, and the retail price has fallen for a good burning oil from 7d a gallon to about 4£d." "There can be only one end to the war," said an expert. "The great competitors now left m the field aje both too big to be swallowed up, and. when they have lost enough money there is no doubt that they will settle differences by sharing the carth — a hemisphere for each." ,-•-'"■

[Recent cablegrams have indicated that the two firms have come to an arrangement.]