70 TIMBER SUPPLIES AND RUSSIAN FORESTS 



will be required for rebuilding the devastated areas 

 have been already alluded to. Is the end of the war 

 going to witness a ruinous competition between the 

 allied countries in the timber markets of Europe ? 

 And are colossal sums to be spent, colossal fortunes to 

 be made, in rebuilding the houses, etc., in the areas 

 destroyed by war ? 



It is difficult to see, unless the Allies come to an 

 early and definite understanding on this head — it is 

 difficult to perceive how matters can be otherwise. 

 When all allowances have been made for America, 

 Canada, and Newfoundland continuing the imports 

 they have been sending us or increasing them, will 

 there be sufficient to meet the enotmous demand ? 

 And will these latter imports bring down prices. As 

 has been stated elsewhere, a considerable proportion 

 of the amounts reaching us are a direct outcome of 

 the prevalent high prices. To have to continue paying 

 the present exorbitant prices or even prices double 

 pre-war rates will be suicidal and a most unstatesman- 

 like policy. It cannot be maintained that war time 

 is not the time to consider these matters. If there 

 is one thing certain it is that the termination of the war 

 will be too late. We had not the foresight to grasp 

 what would happen at the outbreak of this colossal 

 war. Let it not be said of us that its termination 

 found us in the same state of unpreparedness. 



My proposition is that it will be imperative that 

 the Allies should be in a position to control the 

 European timber market at the end of the war, to 

 exercise in fact a State control over prices for a time, 

 as the only effective means to lessen the enormous 



