RUSSIAN RESOURCES 197 



Secondly, it may be held that as long as we are 

 supreme at sea there is no danger of our supplies 

 running short in peace time. But is this a safe in- 

 ference ? We imported, e.g., in 1913 nearly fifteen 

 million pounds sterling worth of forest produce from 

 Russia. Russia with Finland has extensive tracts of 

 forest. The forests of Siberia have often been extolled 

 as inexhaustible. This is perhaps not quite the truth, 

 but, as has been shown, they are extremely valuable. 

 The question is how long can we rely upon a contin- 

 uous unchecked export of raw forest materials from 

 Russia or from any other country. It must be borne 

 in mind that, as with other semi-developed countries, 

 Russia's population and industries are increasing and 

 have made rapid strides latterly. Also, not so many 

 years ago a Russian Finance Minister painted quite 

 a different picture of the state of the forests in parts 

 of Siberia from the one so commonly accepted. It 

 was in connection with the settlement of immigrants 

 in the country along the Siberian Railway. He 

 pointed out that it would be necessary to give special 

 attention to the forests of those parts, the actual 

 condition of which was, owing to wanton destruction 

 by the inhabitants by fire and axe, by no means so 

 rosy as was imagined. He foreshadowed protection 

 and State organisation of these areas. This work has 

 since been commenced and about a fourth of this 

 gigantic area of forests has been explored. As in- 

 dicated in Article X, the result of this investigation so 

 far has shown them to be even more valuable than 

 was anticipated. As regards the other countries Nor- 

 way for a time, if not at present, was overcutting 



