The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1924. OIL THE VITAL FACTOR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19009, 9 May 1924, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1924. OIL THE VITAL FACTOR

i Our cable news of yesterday contained, i in a message from New Y'ork, the substance of a telegram from Cleveland, wherein it was stated that “only by the united efforts of business men, statesmen, educationalists and journalists throughout the world to create and !produce the will to peace can be :achieved recovery and reconstruction ■of a thorough and abiding kind.” Strangely enough there was nothing ito indicate bywhom this message, was ’sent, nor to whom it was addressed. ‘However, as a tangible expression i of idealistic theory and an appeal to ■the best in human nature, the message . speaks for itself. The idea is a splendid one. If all the powerful thoughtI creating forces throughout the world could be induced to their combined influence in a determined effort to create a universal “will” for peace, [the millenium would be close handy.

But, unhappily, the signs and portents do not presage anything so joyous as that. Germany at the moment is one great experimental factory for poison gas, the premature explosions of which in her laboratories are, for the world, at once a warning and a threat. France, in her not unnatural desire to get reparations, has at the moment an army of some three-quarters of a million to make sure of these reparations, a body of men which is the most highly-train-ed army in the world. Russia, with her “Red Army,” her new aeroplanes, and her settled determination to wreck the peace of Europe, if necessary, to make room for revolution, is always the hidden menace. In all this there is but scant evidence of the mere “willing” that peace shall be established upon the earth. Rather does it signify the futility of trying to prevent war by signing scraps of paper, and the necessity of providing more effective means to that end. One such means is strongly urged by Mr. Shaw Desmond, in a special article which he has contributed to the Sydney Sun. He writes on the assumption that the next world-war will be a war in which oil will be the decisive factor. Germany, he says, knows this. Russia knows this, England and America know this. England and America together practically control the oil supplies of the world. The aeroplane of the future, as of to-day, will be driven by oil, The submarine is being driven by oil. The wireless dirigible of to-morrow’, which is going to decide the fate of cities and of nations, will be oil-driven. If England and America “hold the ring” that is, put their heads together in friendly fashion for an understanding on oil-control, the peace of the w r orld is safe. Outside of America’s Appalachian, mid-Continent, Gulf, and Rocky Mountain oil beds, there is scarcely a big oil-bed in the world in which England does not carry a formidable interest. This is fortunate for the islandempire, the integrity of which turns upon a sufficiency of fuel to drive its airships over, its battleships on, and its submarines under the w r ater. England has also large interests in the oilfields of Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Colombia, and the Guianas, and the total production, actual and “potential,” of world-oil, either owned or controlled by Great Britain, is about 40 per cent., of the world’s output. Mr. Shaw Desmond speaks with some authority because, during a recent twentythousand mile trip through the West and especially in the oil areas of the States, he claims to have met everywhere men of position who said, frankly, that an understanding between England and America upon oil was es scntial to the peace of the world. At his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey, the great Edison himself, in the course of a long conversation, said to Mr Desmond: “The ‘wireless dirigible’ and poison gas may easily decide the next great war. That the aeroplane of to-morrow with even the poison gas already in existence —an aeroplane driven by oil—would be able to kill practically every man, woman and child in the cities of London, Paris or NewYork within the space of three hours is for me practically assured.” Asked whether he or any other inventor had so far been able to devise any counter to the “flying death,” oil driven, Edison replied to the effect that he had been for many years engaged upon a scries of experiments for the purpose of bringing down the plane of the future, driven by oil, over any given area, but so far without success. Since Edison gave that answer we have had the claim of Mr. Grindell Matthews that he has discovered a ray which will, among other things, stop an aeroplane in sight; but that claim has yet to be justified by results. Failing that, or the discovery of some other effective means of countering the air menace, it seems clear that the control of oil by England and America is essential for the “holding of the ring.” If the awful prognostications of the way in which the next world-war will be fought are even partially accurate, then steps will have to be taken by the leaders of both countries to get together and so prevent the murder of millions. An eminent man who, with Edison, controlled the Inventions Bureau of America during the war has said: “Already experiments have been made with wireless dirigibles, which show absolute accuracy up to ninetyfive miles.” That is to say, pilotless aeroplanes, carrying their deadly loads of the new poison gas, are already in existence with a capacity to fly true to their objective, without deflection, drop their loads upon the defenceless heads of thousands of non-combatants, and kill without fear of retaliation. “The only effective way to prevent this wholesale murder of non-combat ants,” he added, “is for the motive power of the poison-planes to be controlled. That motive power is oil. Only England and America can control it.” Therefore Mr. Shaw Desmond argues that what is necessary is an Anglo-American Board of Oil-Control, holding periodical meetings for the consideration of ways and means and the smoothing out of misunderstandings, in London and New York alternately’.