PORTS AND HARBOURS 5 
and that, in its furthermost limits, a hinterland may even 
be common to several ports. When this is the case, the 
question of competition arises, and the port-which succeeds 
in attracting the greater amount of traffic will obviously 
flourish at the expense of its neighbours. 
IMPORTANCE OF OVERSEAS TRADE 
To an island community, such as Great Britain, the 
importance of overseas trade admits of no dispute. With 
its population of between forty and forty-five million 
people, all requiring to be fed and clothed, and with 
insufficient inland resources to produce anything like the 
quantities of food and raiment necessary for so great a 
multitude, it is obvious that supplies must be obtained 
from abroad, and equally obvious that exports of various 
kinds, coal and manufactured goods, must be sent in 
return in order to maintain a rough balance of payment— 
though the intricacies of modern commercial operations 
are so great that it is possible that the cost of a sack of 
imported grain may be defrayed from the passage money 
of an emigrant from Italy to South America. 
The position of Great Britain, with its numerous centres 
of industry and its relatively small engagement in agricul- 
tural pursuits, is a source of anxiety. There is rarely 
more than six weeks supply of food available in the 
country, depending, as the country does, on the regularity 
of supplies from abroad. This was its vulnerable point 
during the war, and its antagonists, well aware of the 
fact, sought to take the fullest advantage. If the sub- 
marine campaign had been successful, Great Britain, 
powerful and patriotic as she is, would have been starved 
into ignominious surrender. It is an obvious point for 
consideration whether the storage of foodstuffs in this 
country should not be materially increased to guard 
against contingencies which may arise at any time, perhaps, 
and even very likely, from a totally unexpected quarter. 
There is ample storage accommodation available. Many 
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