AMERICAN LUMBER TRADE IN ITALY 729 



down by the realities of life to claim that "Italy is looking to the 

 United States as the natural source of an important part of its future 

 lumber needs, and the amount that the United States will ship to 

 Italy will depend upon the enterprise, initiative, and skill with which 

 this market is developed.^ 



Similarly unfounded appears to be the statement that the sentiment 

 engendered against Austrian products (during the war) will militate 

 against reentrance into and reexploitation of the Italian lumber market. 

 The provinces which contained the forest wealth from which Italy 

 derived the bulk of its lumber import before the war are no longer a 

 part of Austria today. Some of these regions were never antagonistic 

 to Italy and there is no nationalistic or racial prejudice which would 

 prevent an exchange of commodities. This is confirmed by a recent 

 statement on the lumber situation in Italy by our American Com- 

 mercial Attache, Alfred P. Dennis, at Rome. According to Mr. Dennis, 

 the Italians will buy their lumber where they find it best and cheapest, 

 irrespective of the sources of the supply. The Italians, at the present 

 prevailing prices for American lumber, cannot afford to buy lumber in 

 the United States, especially at the present rate of money exchange. 

 The Italians are expecting to find a new field on which they can draw 

 for their lumber needs in the Caucasus or the "Republic of Georgia," 

 rich in mineral and forest resources where they hope to acquire the 

 dominant economic influence. They have already established saw- 

 mills in Albania, richly endowed with heavy stands of timber, and 

 are drawing upon the vast forests in the provinces newly added to 

 Italy as a result of the war. Italy may look to the United States for 

 some heavy timbers for construction in sizes and lengths which she 

 cannot obtain elsewhere. The bulk of nearly all other grades of 

 lumber, however, will undoubtedly come from what was once Aus- 

 tria-Hungary and other Mediterranean countries lying to the east of 

 Italy. 



'The Lumber Market in Italy and Reconstruction Requirements, page 7, Spe- 

 cial Agents Series No. 182. 1919. 



