THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 27; 



the production of other ferro-alloys, and so extended our requirements in 

 commercial quantities of metals which were previously of interest mainly 

 in the laboratory — vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum, aluminium, 

 chromium, cobalt and nickel. The adoption of alloys, especially the 

 ferro-alloys, at the end of the last century opened up a new period in the 

 newly established mineral era of the World's history ; for, beside the in- 

 crease in the quantity of the commoner base metals which were wanted for 

 the growing industries of Great Britain, it was necessary now to look 

 further afield for supplies of those metals that had hitharto been regarded 

 as rare in quantity and nominal in value. 



The country in which the industrial revolution originated and gathered 

 momentum, because of the close association of a few base metals, could no 

 longer live on its own raw materials, and never again will do so. Even in 

 peace time Great Britain alone consumes twice as much copper and just 

 as much lead as the whole Empire produces. Meanwhile, developments 

 had occurred elsewhere, notably in Germany, where political stability had 

 been secured, and in the United States, where the Thomas-Gilchrist 

 process also had stimulated expansion. Thus, by the beginning of the 

 twentieth century, the industrial activities of the World had entered a 

 new phase, which was characterised, if not yet dominated, by the necessity 

 for minerals to maintain the expanding Arts of Peace. 



From this time on no nation could be self-contained ; a new era of 

 international dependence was inaugurated, but the extent and the signifi- 

 cance of the change was not consciously realised by our public leaders until 

 1914, when it was found that the developments of peace had fundamentally 

 changed the requirements for war. Indeed, not even the German General 

 Staff, with all its methodical thoroughness, had formed what the tacticians 

 call a true ' appreciation of the situation.' Two illustrations of short- 

 sightedness on both sides are sufficient for the present argument. Up to 

 the outbreak of war, although the wolfram deposits of South Burma were 

 worked almost entirely by British companies, the whole of the mineral 

 went to Germany for the manufacture of the metal, tungsten, which was an 

 essential constituent of high-speed tool steel. Sheffield still occupied a 

 leading place in the production of this variety of steel, but was dependent 

 on Germany for the metal, which the Germans obtained mainly from 

 British ore. Under the compulsion of necessity, and without consideration 

 of commercial cost, we succeeded before the middle of 1915 in making 

 tungsten, whilst Germany, failing to obtain an early and favourable 

 decision in war, used up her stocks of imported ore and turned to the 



