Oil in Britain Mr. Runciman made a good defence of
his Petroleum Bill, and fairly disposed of the suggestion that sinister interests had inspired it or undesirably influenced its drafting. Opposition in the Commons was confined to a few members, nearly all belonging to the extreme' Right. Lord Hartington's idea, that royalties on petroleum should go to the private owners of the soil, is ill calculated at this time of day to commend itself to a Legislature with the object-lesson of the British coal industry before it. The vesting of ownership in the Crown appears the best and almost the only method to ensure orderly 'development, if and when any oil is discovered ; and the surface owners, whose land has never been valued with the slightest reference to oil, will receive full justice under the provisions to com- pensate them for disturbance and damage. Whether our island can ever yield paying oil is another question. A small, though not a paying, well was during the War pumped in the Midlands. But commercial quantities are only likely to be found at great depths ; and the capital required for boring to such depths is so large that only very powerful syndicates could afford to risk it.
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