In a letter of the same date, M. Cambon agreed. By these means France was tricked, for doubtless M. Cambon was not aware at the time that, from June 26, 1914, a British firm, the _Turkish Petroleum Company_, had obtained from the Turkish Minister of Finance, Saïd Halim, the concession of all rights over oil discovered or to be discovered in the vilayets of Mosul, Basra, and Bagdad.[50] Now, it was just from these three vilayets that the oil in the French zone came; so much so that, by the interpretation of the Franco-British Agreement of May, 1916, France was completely ousted from the oil production of Mesopotamia.
Thanks to Henry Bérenger, a new agreement was concluded between him and Mr. Walter Long in March and April, 1919. Henry Bérenger recalled the agreement made before 1914 between Saïd Halim and the _Bagdad Bahn_, the railway company which had passed into French and British hands since the German defeat. The _Turkish Petroleum Company_ was subject to this agreement, because the railway passed through its oil-fields. Rights had been reserved for the Germans over half the production of Mesopotamia. "Thus, France obtained 25 per cent. as her half-share of the German rights." Unfortunately, this agreement met with a certain opposition at the Quai d'Orsay. It was held up, and M. Clemenceau did not sign it, "because, on February 8, 1919, after we had ceded Mosul and Palestine at the request of Mr. Lloyd George upon the threefold condition of the oil agreement--whole-hearted British support of the French point of view in the event of American objections--and finally the exact fulfilment of the 1916 treaty concerning the frontiers of Syria, Mosul excepted, our British friends presented to us a map which deprived us of one-third of Syria in addition."
Such was the explanation given to the Chamber by André Tardieu! A certainty was sacrificed for a possibility. M. Henry Bérenger strove to have the treaty revived, and on December 21st signed a new contract with Sir Hamar Greenwood, the British Minister in charge of oil questions, very similar to the Long-Bérenger Agreement, except in the matter of native interests. This time, however, Lloyd George, not considering it advantageous enough to Britain, refused to sign it.