58 TIMBER SUPPLIES AND FAMINE PRICES 



three, and even more, times the ordinary pre-war 

 figures. Millions of pounds sterling must have been 

 thrown away in the purchase of timber, the ordinary 

 common timbers of everyday use, which could cer- 

 tainly have been saved had matters been placed on a 

 business footing. It is useless to cry over spilt milk, 

 but had the matter been entrusted to a man, not 

 connected with the trade, who understood the princi- 

 ciples of scientific forest management and had himself 

 been in charge of large areas of State forest, very 

 different results would have been obtained. 



And we are in no better case at the present moment. 

 The Home Timber Supply Committee has been already 

 alluded to. Its chief raison d'etre is to obtain supplies 

 of timber for the Government needs. It is doubtful 

 whether it will be able to do much to stay unnecessary 

 fellings made to take advantage of a high market. 

 And in any event it has no hold over timber merchants 

 no more than Government can exercise at present 

 any control over the market and prices. Nor do these 

 fellings affect the matter, for the amounts of timber 

 available in this country are so small that their influence 

 on the market so far as the future is concerned is insig- 

 nificant. Far bigger issues are at stake than can be 

 settled by the comparatively small area of woods, prac- 

 tically all privately owned, standing in Britain. In the 

 meantime the home timber trade is doing well. Pro- 

 prietors have offered their woods freely and they have 

 been as quickly taken up by the home merchants and 

 also by colliery proprietors. In fact these latter were on 

 the scene, as has been stated, very early in the war days, 

 for they were compelled to turn to home-grown wood, 



