Lord Clinton and his colleagues are now holding meetings of
the Empire Forestry Conference in Australia, which has so little realized its own resources that it is a large importer of foreign timber. At home the Stationery Office sends us the tenth Report of the Imperial Economic Committee which is devoted to timber (Cmd. 3175, 9d.). It tells us how little these islands can do to supply our needs, and how that might be better done. It records the work of the Forestry Commis- sion and the research work at Prince's Risborough, at present a national institution, not an Imperial one as the Economic Committee hopes that it will be. Of our vast import of soft- woods, about 5 per cent. come from the immense resources of the Empire. In 1927 we imported 2.51 millions worth of softwoods from Russia alone. How was this managed if it is true that the diplomatic break put an end to our trade with that country ? The Committee urge producers, consumers and middlemen to overcome the great difficulties of marketing the almost unknown timbers that are unused only because they are unknown, and also ask producers to follow the Baltic and other exporters in showing some Consideration for the needs of British consumers and the habits of the market here. Until regular trade in these woods is established, the cost will be greater than that of well-known foreign woods, but architects and others who make specifications are begged to try to persuade their clients to pay up for the Empire. The Report -has -many- interesting-details of information, as, for instance, of the monopoly held in the United Stites of " converting " the'important supplies of mahogany from British Honduras" and of the destruction of forests for pulp.
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