Every economic understanding furthers the cause of peace.
Agreement in the matter of mining is a particularly difficult and
at the same time a most important question, as minerals are unequally
 distributed over the earth andthesupply isnotinexhaustible,
while the demand as a whole is continually on the increase varying
though it does very much as regards detail.
The difficulty of arriving at an international understanding in
this particular sphere of inorganic economy is further increased by
the fact that the actual technical terms employed are very varied
and inappropriate, and that in the case of applied or economic
geology and mining no such international scientific nomenclature
exists as is used in chemistry, mineralogy and petrography, and
as may be applied if need be to geology and the study of mineral
deposits.
International mineral statistics as a whole suffer very considerably
 from this defect; in actual fact, they are of no use from the
scientific point of view, although for want of anything better, they
continue to be used in practice and are taken as a basis for trade
balances, customs tariffs, commercial treaties, etc., as something
which has been “officially ascertained and which must therefore
be correct. In reality they convey an entirely wrong impression,
and are full of mistakes, fallacies, confusion and misunderstanding.
Every expert in taxation or commercial policy can confirm this
directly he attempts to go into the matter scientifically and honestly.

What has been said of statistics,which constitute the international
language of figures, also applies to that other international medium
of understanding, the cartographic description of mineral sources
or map of useful minerals, which is still quite incomplete and Jleads
to more misunderstanding than agreement. The conventional signs
vary according to the different countries and bear more than one
meaning, and the indication of the economic importance of deposits,
 reserves, means of access and disposal, places and methods of
working up and handling, consumption, requirements, prices, etc.,
is still incomplete and does not permit of exact comparison or further
 conclusions from the international point of view.

3,