The State and Petroleum The Government's ease for the State
ownership of any undiscovered supplies of petroleum in this country is unanswerable. Oil is no respecter of landlords' boundaries. &prospector who .sinks a well in one man's land may find himself faced with claims from half a dozen other landlords who would be able to find a plausible pretext for asserting that oil was being drawn from under their lands. Opporthnities for litigation are innumerable. " But if oil," argue the opposition, " why not coal,? " And indeed why not ? The nationalization of coal royalties was advocated by the Sankey Commission of 1919 and the Samuel Commission of 1926. It has even been approved recently by Lord Gainford himself, who is President of the Coal Industry Society. The critics are quite right in their contention that there is no logical distinction in regard to the nationalization of royalties between coal and oil. The second step might well follow the first.
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