PART III 

 TIMBER SUPPLIES AND THE WAR 



XII 



TIMBER SUPPLIES AND THE WAR ^ 



Imports in 1913 



For a considerable number of years past the possi- 

 bility of the occurrence of a wood famine has been 

 discussed — a famine, that is, unprecedented in the 

 history of the world. Many have scouted the idea 

 of such a proposition as a fantastic chimera, pointing 

 to the vast forest resources still existing on the surface 

 of the globe. Others, with a more intimate knowledge, 

 perhaps, of the real position of affairs, have persis- 

 tently sounded the note of alarm. They have drawn 

 attention to the enormously increased ddmand for 

 forest produce of all kinds which the past half-century 

 has witnessed ; to the great destruction of forests 

 which has taken place in the opening out of the coun- 

 tries of the New World during the same period ; to 

 the wasteful and extravagant utilisation of these 



1 This article was written in September 1914, and published in 

 The Nineteenth Century and After in February 1915. 



160 



