62 TIMBER SUPPLIES DURING THE WAR 



from Scandinavia, Sweden, America, and elsewhere, 

 and prices ranged from a shilling per cubic foot 

 upwards for converted scantlings. That, to his 

 mind, would have some influence or some effect, 

 and would have to be considered from a purely 

 commercial standpoint in regard to any afforesta- 

 tion schemes which might be set on foot. He should 

 be very sorry indeed if we came to the conclusion 

 that in this country we could not produce soft 

 timber converted from our own island-grown woods 

 to enable it to share in the trade which he thought 

 ought to come and remain permanently with this 

 country if this timber question were handled the 

 right way. They had issued another Order in regard 

 to Ireland, and that was to control the export to 

 Great Britain of native-grown Irish timber. He 

 had had strong complaints from members in Ireland 

 that Englishmen had been over to Ireland and 

 exploited Irish woods at the expense of the Irish 

 home demands. It was well known, he thought, 

 that Ireland was not so well favoured with timber 

 in the shape of forests and so on as Great Britain, 

 and owing to the drastic reductions in imported 

 timber, it had been put to him in the form of a resolu- 

 tion that some steps should be taken to prohibit 

 the export of timber from Ireland without some 

 form of inspection and control. He had endeavoured 

 to meet that with the Order which had recently 

 been issued by the Board of Trade. 



"There was another question. They had seen 

 the published Orders in regard to timber standing, 

 timber in the round, and converted timber, both 

 hard woods and soft. There was the ever-enormous 

 demand for pit wood they had to deal with. As 

 he had told them, next year we had to get in this 

 country some 3,500,000 tons of pit wood, and he 



