24 INTRODUCTORY 



when a similar honour was allotted to me at 

 the Board of Trade before the President, Sir 

 Albert Stanley, M.P., on May 16th, 1917, on 

 the subject of the Coastwise Trade of Great 

 Britain. On both occasions, at the wish of 

 Sir Algernon Firth, President of the Council of 

 the Association of Chambers of Commerce, 

 I drew up, for the use of Ministers, on behalf 

 of the Association, recommendations as to the 

 future mercantile shipping policy to be observed 

 by Great Britain and the Dominions in conjunc- 

 tion with their Allies, based on the study of the 

 early history of our trade and navigation. The 

 replies delivered by Mr. Runciman, Mr. Bonar 

 Law, and Sir Albert Stanley, and copies of the 

 Memoranda handed to them by me, may be 

 found in the printed Reports of the Proceedings 

 of the Association of Chambers of Commerce 

 of the United Kingdom, April, 1916, No. 619, 

 and May, 1917, No. 631. 



The glitter of the herring's livery of green and 

 silver catches the eye all through the records 

 of British commerce and national history. 

 Now that, owing to the German submarine 

 menace, the shortage of food has drawn public 

 attention to the increasing importance of fish, 

 and especially herrings, as part of the national 

 diet, I venture to print my notes in the hope 

 that they may be of some interest to a genera- 

 tion which has, for the first time, come into 

 personal contact with the problem of the 

 national food supply, and more particularly to 



