THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 23 



than seems to be recognised even by students of mineral economics. 

 This must be my excuse for inviting you to consider the special ways 

 in which the trend of mineral exploitation since the War has placed a new 

 meaning on our international relationships. 



With knowledge of the shortcomings which were felt during the War, 

 in variety as well as quantity of metals, it was natural immediately after 

 to review our resources, with the object in view of obtaining security for 

 the future. But events have since developed rapidly, both in international 

 relationships and in mineral technology. The evolution of metallurgy during 

 the present century, and the developments in mining on which metallurgy 

 depend, have placed new and rigid limitations on a nation's ability to 

 undertake and maintain a war ; consequently, the control of the mineral 

 industries may be made an insurance for peace. Let us first consider 

 briefly how these circumstances have arisen, how each country has passed 

 from the stage of being self-contained in variety of essential products to 

 the most recent of all developments, the change to large-scale production 

 that has tended to the concentration of the mineral and metal industries 

 to certain specially favoured regions which will hold the position of 

 dominance for several generations to come. 



The names of Isis, Cybele, Demeter and Ceres seem to suggest that the 

 ancient theologians in different lands formed the same conception of those 

 peculiar conditions in pre-historic times which made it likely that a 

 woman — ^tied for long periods to the home-cave — rather than a man, was 

 the one who first discovered the possibility of raising grain-crops by sowing 

 seed. Whoever it was who first made this discovery was the one who 

 diverted the evolution of man along an entirely new branch, and so laid 

 the foundation on which our civilisation was subsequently built — the 

 beginning of what Rousseau called ' Le premier et plus respectable de 

 tous les arts.' 



Compared with this economic application of observational science, the 

 later inventions, which seem so important to us — explosives, printing, the 

 steam engine — were but minor incidents in the evolution of civilised 

 activities. Previous uncertainty regarding the supply of the products of 

 the chase, and the dangers which were necessarily attached to the collection 

 of berries and edible roots in the jungle, became less important to the 

 family-man when it was found possible to raise food-supplies nearer home. 

 This discovery was thus not one of merely material advantage ; for it 



