The most important question before the Falmouth Com- mittee on
the production of oil from coal was whether this country should aim at self-sufficiency in oil supplies ; the most striking feature of its report is the decisiveness with which it answers in the negative. Its arguments are extremely strong, and the strongest is that to produce the 4,327000 tons of petrol consumed by this country in 1936 would involve a cost of L232,000,000 in plant and also to the Exchequer of L43,000,000 a year. The increase in employment in the coal industry would be in no way comparable. The report therefore concludes that the most efficient and economic method of supplying our needs, in war as well as peace, is by the present system of importing foreign supplies, combined with arrangements for storage. The second recommenda- tion deserves serious and immediate attention. At the same time, however, the committee recommends the continuance until 1950 of the present preference to home producers ; and the inconsistency in thus approving the payment of subsidies to what, apparently, will remain a highly uneconomic form of production demands some explanation. It would seem preferable to concentrate all expenditure on research.
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