FRANCE AND NEAR EAST 93 



competitor to us in the North European timber 

 markets. 



The Mediterranean and Near East Markets. At 

 first sight it may not be apparent why the Mediter- 

 ranean and Near East markets should exert any 

 influence upon British ones i.e. the North European 

 ones although they would of course affect our 

 Empire ones e.g. Egypt ; but the extension of the 

 war and the entrance of Rumania has altered to a 

 curious degree the position, for the chief suppliers 

 of the timber markets of the Mediterranean and 

 Near East, which absorbed before the war about 

 20,000,000 of forestry materials, were Austria- 

 Hungary and Rumania, and to a lesser extent 

 Russia, a fact probably not generally appreciated in 

 this country. The countries taking these materials 

 were Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Persia, Egypt, 

 Italy, Spain, the South of France, and her African 

 Colonies, Algeria and Tunis. 



It will be obvious that the Mediterranean timber 

 market has thus become thoroughly disorganized 

 as a result of the war, and is likely to remain so for 

 some time afterwards. Look at the chief suppliers, 

 Austria-Hungary and Rumania, and the large 

 number of treeless countries dependent upon this 

 market for their timber requirements. 



I had an opportunity of instituting a few inquiries 

 into this matter in 1916 whilst on active service 

 in Macedonia. Salonika is the only timber market 

 for Macedonia and Albania, building timbers being 

 in chief demand. Materials from here were also 

 sent up the railway to Monastir and Uskub in 



