Abstract
THE debate in the House of Commons on Nov. 20 on Empire timber resources was largely confined to a reiteration of the view that the world will be faced with a famine in softwood coniferous supplies in some thirty years' time. The debate originated from a resolution moved by Sir George Courthope to the effect “that the threatened shortage of commercial softwood timber demands the serious attention of His Majesty's Government”. Sir George said that foresters regard the position with grave alarm. This, however, is stating but half the case, for many timber merchants agree with the foresters. On the other hand, there is a body of opinion comprising both foresters and timber merchants who do not acquiesce in this alarmist view. They hold that as the supplies of the commodity in question become less abundant prices will rise, other materials will replace, to some extent, the softwood timbers; and that, with the ingenuity and adaptive faculty of the various trades, matters will readjust themselves. The arguments concerning the exhaustion of Canadian supplies in thirty years, the competition of the United States with the British Empire, and the scanty supplies which would by then be left in Northern Europe, have all been alluded to in our columns on previous occasions. It is not, however, apparent upon what source of information Sir George Courthope bases his statement that “in Russia, certainly within twenty-five or thirty years, production will be forced down to a limit which does not exceed their own requirements, and the capacity to export timber will have ceased”. This is very far from being in agreement with opinions held by some continental experts, who are probably in a far better position to know the true position than most in Great Britain.
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News and Views. Nature 124, 848–854 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124848b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124848b0