XIV 



TIMBER IMPORTS AND EXPORTS IN I915 



The first year and a half of the Great War has brought 

 into prominence a number of economic factors and 

 questions, many of them by no means flattering either 

 to our vanity or organising powers as a nation. We 

 have discovered our entire dependence on our enemy 

 Germany for many of our everyday requirements; one 

 might almost write necessities — dyes, medicines, even 

 such an important- fighting material as acetone, all 

 were made in Germany. For one economic essential, 

 however, we were not dependent upon Germany. 

 Our timber and other forestry materials did not come 

 either from Germany or Austria, with the exception of 

 comparatively small quantities. And yet, as has 

 been already shown in these articles, we were practically 

 entirely dependent upon imports for these materials. 

 By the end of the first six months of the war we had 

 realised, to some extent, our difficulties in this respect, 

 as the preceding article has indicated. But we were 

 still far from a full realisation of what was in front of 

 us. True, prices had already gone up, but to nothing 

 like the figure they were to reach by the end of another 

 year. Our true position in this timber matter does 

 not appear to have been fully grasped by the country 



