May 4, 1917.

THE COLLIERY GUARDIAN.

857

inclined to hold off until maximum prices for neutral
countries are arranged. Reports from Lancashire,
Yorkshire and the Midlands again refer to the
shortage of stocks of house coal, and the consequent
pressure on the collieries by merchants. The Cardiff
market shows strength, and the limitation price is
the rule for the better sorts. Newport is sharing in
the improvement. A different experience is recorded
in Scotland owing to the scarcity of tonnage, yet
holders are reluctant to make any concession from
recent quotations.

Higher rates are not proving attractive to iree
tonnage, and steamers for neutral ports are still
offered in very inadequate numbers. Owners appear
to be holding aloof. A Cardiff report specifies 140s.
being paid for Alexandria.

A deputation from the South Wales Miners’
Federation interviewed the Coal Controller on
Wednesday, relative to colliery stoppages caused by
inadequate railway and shipping facilities. Mr.
Calthrop expressed the hope that he would be able
to deal with the matter as speedily as possible.

South Wales miners are asking for an increase in
the wage rate on the ground of increased cost of
living. At the request of the Coal Controller the
South Wales coal owners have decided not to proceed
with their application for a wage reduction based on
the lower selling price of coal.

A scheme has been drafted with the object of
ensuring, as far as practicable, the shipment of coal
at the port nearest the colliery in order to economise
in haulage. The scheme applies to South Wales.

It is understood that the colliery recruiting courts
will be reconstituted in connection with the proposed
recruiting-of 20,000 men from the mines, and in the
first instance only men who have gone into the pits
from other trades will be brought before them.

The Imperial War Conference recommended the
establishment of an Imperial Mineral Resources
Bureau in London, which would concern itself with
the mineral resources and metal requirements of the
Empire.

The title selected for the Howard
Iron Ore lectures, given under the auspices
Supplies. of the Royal Society of Arts, and
delivered this year by Prof. W. G.
Fearnsides, Sorby Professor of Geology in the
University of Sheffield, does not seem quite to define
the present position. “The National Shortage of
Iron Ore Supplies,” which is the title in question,
although undoubtedly representing the fact that
British blast furnaces are in the position of being
able to absorb more than the normal output of iron
ore in this country, is not to be read as implying that
we are anywhere in the neighbourhood of the
exhaustion of our iron ore reserves. There is still
an immense store of valuable iron ore in the British
Isles, and we are inclined to think that the increased
demand which has arisen as a result of the war will
not cease on the conclusion of peace. If we are
going to put seriously into practice the principle of
being self-supporting with regard to our staple
industries, here is a case which concerns the most
important of them. The iron and steel industry,
moreover, reacts upon every other commercial
activity, and not least upon the prosperity of- coal
mining, with which iron and steel manufacture are
so closely associated that one of the factors govern-
ing the economic value of iron ore is its proximity to
a coal field. This intimate and mutual relationship
between iron and coal may perhaps be the explana-
tion of a curious mistake into which one of our
comtemporaries appears recently to have fallen, and
into which we ourselves inadvertently plunged, with
regard to the Jurassic iron fields of French Lorraine.
As Prof. Fearnsides kindly points out in a letter
appearing elsewhere in our columns, the mineral
output in the districts of Briey and Longwy, given
in our issue of last week, refers to iron and not coal.
It is more than probable that coal does exist in that
area, as an extension of the Saar coal field, which
has in fact been already proved in the neighbourhood
of Pont a Mousson, further south, where a number
of boreholes have been put down. But up to the out-
break of war there had been no actual coal mining
in that district, which has since been in enemy
occupation. The Economiste du Littoral, therefore,
appears to have been anticipating somewhat the
development of a region which is practically certain
to take place sooner or later after the restoration of

peace. We refer to this matter here because the
conditions somewhat resemble those of Great Britain,
where we have large and valuable Jurassic iron ore
deposits, viz., those of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire
and the adjoining areas, and where, also, it is
highly probable that they overlie coal fields which
are not yet worked, or even proved. Prof. Fearnsides
pointed out, in his lecture at the Royal Society of
Arts, that the iron ores of the above-mentioned
counties are handicapped to some extent by their
distance from the collieries. Is it too much to utter
a prophecy that the situation is destined to become
profoundly altered in the future, when the concealed
coal field beneath the Trent basin has been brought
into working ?

Another question deserving some attention at the
present time is the future prospect of the coal
measure iron ores. Some years ago about nine-
tenths of the iron ore raised in this country was
obtained from the clay ironstone of the coal measures.
Nothing has been more striking thanbthe gradual
falling off in this output of coal measure iron ore,
not on account of the failure of supply, but rather
owing to the modern demand for Bessemer steel, for
which purpose the clay iron ores have been found
less suitable than the non-phosphoric ores of Bilbao.
Coal measure ores are, in fact, restricted almost
entirely to the production of special foundry and
puddled iron. It is difficult to say how far this
neglect of a most important reserve of iron ore is
justified under present circumstances. Prof. Ashley,
speaking recently before the Staffordshire Iron and
Steel Institute, referred to the remarkable way in
which Germany had increased her production of pig
iron since the annexation of the Lorraine ore field
in 1871. Yet these Lorraine ores are of no better
quality, and cost considerably more at the furnace,
than ores of somewhat similar age in Lincolnshire or
Northamptonshire. Germany certainly possesses no
advantages over this country either in the quantity
or the quality of available iron ore; and we are
inclined to think that the British iron masters need
not, have allowed the output of coal measure iron ore
to decline, but could have overcome whatever technical
or economic objection there may be to its use, if there
had been sufficient inducement to do so. We are
probably on the threshold of circumstances which
will supply that incentive, by which they will be
urged to examine more closely than before the possi-
bilities of making fuller use of our home supplies in
general, and our clay ironstone in particular.

This brings us to the consideration of the rich
haematite ore of Cumberland, much of which is
approaching the period of exhaustion, so far as
visible supplies are concerned. Much attention has
lately been given to the discovery of new deposits
and the further development of haematite mining in
this country; and considerable sums of money have
been wasted in promiscuous and haphazard pro-
specting. Successful searching for iron ores demands
a great deal more than the guesswork frequently
bestowed upon the site of a borehole. Very many
years ago this subject was ventilated in the Colliery
Guardian by J. D. Kendall, the author of the well-
known treatise on “Iron Ores of the British Isles,”
but the lessons he sought to teach appear to
have been forgotten by the present generation of
prospectors, many of whom are repeating the
old errors of the location of boreholes without
reference to the structural geology of the district.
It ought not to be necessary, in this twentieth
century, to refer to these things; but in view of the
increased attention being given to the discovery of
the somewhat irregular haematite deposits of the
carboniferous limestone of the West Cumberland
area, it seems to be necessary to warn those who
may be interested in this question that the occur-
rence of workable haematite . follows geological
principles rather than the predilections of the
prospector.

One of the difficulties experienced by the layman,
who usually finds the money for mineral prospecting,
is the fact that in the case of a metal like iron a very
poor ore might make a surprisingly good show. It
requires an intimate knowledge of commercial con-
ditions to enable a true estimate to be formed of the
economic value and prospects of an iron ore deposit.
This, however, is certain—viz., that the iron ores of
Great Britain and Ireland will attract increased
attention for many years to come. The present
phase is not one that can quickly pass away when

the war is over; for the work of reconstruction that
lies ahead will demand all our energy in the pro-
duction of coal and iron, and will give an increased
value to our home supplies. If we shape our future
policy wisely we shall not any longer neglect the
development of native ores in favour of foreign
imports unless there are overwhelming arguments in
favour of so doing. It may be advisable to continue
the exchange of coal for the low phosphorus ores of
Spain and Scandinavia, but there should still be
abundant room for the products of our own mines.

The Institution of Civil Engineers
Investment acted wisely in inviting Mr. Edgar
of Capital Crammond to give a lecture under
Abroad. the Vernon Harcourt Trust upon

Foreign Trade in Relation to Invest-
ment of Capital Abroad. It is a subject of vast
importance to the economic development of the
Empire. It touches every branch of British industry,
and both directly and indirectly it affects the export
coal trade in particular. When, a short time ago,
the United States was turning its attention to the
development of its foreign coal trade, one of the
methods advocated for the purpose of securing a
sound footing in new markets was the investment of
capital in the countries where these markets were
to be sought. The motive is both obvious and
economically sound. It has been for more than four
centuries the policy of Great Britain, whose annual
income from foreign and colonial investments was
estimated by Mr. Crammond to be somewhere in the
neighbourhood of £200,000,000, a sum which,
capitalised on the basis of 20 years’ purchase, repre-
sents no less than £4,000,000,000 of capital. There
has been from time to time an outcry against this
policy. Many people believe that our foreign invest-
ments mean the export of gold abroad. This view,
however, was shown by Mr. Crammond to be
erroneous. The Board of Trade returns, and other
data, in his opinion, go to show the absolute depen-
dence of our exports of commodities upon the
amount of capital lent to our foreign and colonial
debtors.

If this view is accepted as an economic principle,
it must be admitted to be of the utmost importance.
Tested by actual figures it seems to be a perfectly
sound doctrine ; for curves showing fluctuations both
of foreign investments and of exports certainly
appear to rise and fall in synchronism. At the same
time it is necessary to be cautious in drawing the
conclusion that this synchronism is a proof of mutual
dependence ; whereas it may simply be the expression
of a common cause. Thus there have been periods
of shrinkage in our foreign investments, owing to
financial conditions abroad. These same conditions
may have been responsible for smaller exports. A
foreign country passing through a financial crisis
would scarcely be in a position to be a large purchaser
of our goods.

It is not necessary, however, to rely upon the
truth or otherwise of this dictum. What is certain
is the fact that Great Britain has deliberately adopted
the policy of foreign investments, and this very fact
has been of enormous advantage to us in assisting, to
finance the war. What we should have done with-
out these foreign investments it is difficult to say.
We are preaching now the policy of being strictly
self-contained within the Empire—a very sound
policy in view of the magnitude of our Empire
resources. But if we had adopted from the beginning
so narrow a principle as the confinement of our
capital to the British Isles, where would our world-
wide Empire have been ?

Very much the same kind of argument exists with
regard to our coal export trade. There are still many
who regard it as an economic vice to export coal at
all. But it may be reasonably claimed that no small
part of our foreign investments—our nest-egg of
£4,000,000,000—represents the accumulated value
of our coal exports. Let us consider the matter in
this way. Shipping, as Mr. Crammond shows, plays
a preponderating part in the investment of capital
abroad. Our Board of Trade returns reveal only a
part of our trading and financial relations with our
Dominions and foreign countries. There exist, also,
certain invisible factors, amongst which, perhaps,
one of the most important is the amount of earnings
of the shipping industry. It is not easy to estimate
the exact sum which this represents, but Sir Norman
Hill has arrived at the figure of £162,000,000 for