WILD RUBBER v. PLANTATION RUBBER 67 



ment was British; for years the British pioneers who 

 paved the way to success were derided for their faith 

 in the new enterprise, and they almost had to pawn 

 their shirts to meet expenses whilst they were bring- 

 ing the first plantations to bearing stage. To those 

 pioneers we owe Britain's control of the rubber industry, 

 a weapon which went far towards helping the Allies 

 win the war against rubber-starved Germany. 



You know, of com'se, some of the ways in which 

 rubber was of priceless value for the manufactiu-e of 

 munitions of war — tyres for motor lorries, motor cars, 

 and motor ambulances; aeroplane parts, waterproof 

 boots, ground sheets and macintoshes for the fighting 

 men, surgical appliances for the wounded. And 

 despite the big demand for raw rubber, the supplies 

 on which we could draw were so abundant that the 

 price of the material fell, instead of soaring up and up, 

 as was the case with practically every other raw pro- 

 duct under war conditions. 



We have seen how the plantation rubber industry 

 was developed through a somid belief that the world's 

 demand for rubber would exceed forest supplies. So 

 great has been the development, that to-day some 

 people are prophesying all manner of catastrophes 

 on the ground that the supply will soon be exceeding 

 the demand. On the other hand, there are the op- 

 timists, who are well in the majority ; they have their 

 reasons for looking on the bright side, and from what 

 we know of the rubber industry we find ourselves 

 strongly in sympatly with their arguments. They 

 believe that under the renewal of peace conditions the 

 world's demand for rubber will increase by even bigger 

 proportions than it did under war conditions. They 



