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 un- 
equally 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 consider- 
ably 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 hon- 
estly. 
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 depo- 
sits, 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 fur- 
ther conclusions from the international point of view. 
3,