54 TIMBER SUPPLIES DURING THE WAR 



juncture is perhaps the best commentary on the 

 value of an organized forestry system to a nation. 



In this country Government control had to be 

 instituted over the suppUes of timber. The State 

 requisitioned what it required from where it could 

 find it. The private individual could no longer 

 make use of or sell, save as directed, his own timber 

 standing in his own woods, nor could any person buy 

 timber without permission in the market. An 

 open market ceased to exist. 



The position bein^ as it was, the restrictions 

 introduced were no more than were essential to the 

 carrjdng on of the war. And it may be said that 

 they were loyally adhered to by all affected — 

 the proprietors of woods, the timber merchants, who 

 were naturally greatly affected by these restrictions, 

 and those industries dependent on timber who could 

 no longer obtain the raw product essential to them. 



Various and rather ineffectual attempts were 

 made to put the timber supply on a working basis 

 during the first two years of the war. With the 

 increasing demands of the War Office and Admiralty, 

 and the decreasing supplies forthcoming, they failed 

 to produce the desired result. In 1915. when our 

 ultimate main dependence on home woods was 

 becoming evident, a Home-Grown Timber Committee 

 was appointed to deal with the situation. Later 

 matters were placed on a better basis by the forma- 

 tion of the Timber Supplies Department of the 

 Board of Trade. 



This new departure met with unqualified success, 

 and carried out its arduous work with great judgment 



