Lumber and Timber Products Purchasing Under Lend-Lease Act to Great Britain

Washington, D. C.. July 18-Up to the present time there has not been any purchasing of lumber and timber products under the Lend-Lease Act to Great Britain. This is probably due to the fact that under previous arrangements orders were placed through the British Timber Controller with American exporters and the existing contracts have not been completed and are still being handled under the purchasing procedure set up at the beginning of the war period to date.

Purchases of lumber and timber products under the Lend-Lease Act will be made through the Procurement Division, Treasury Department. Mr. Clifton E. Mack, Director of Procurement, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., is in charge of such purchasing.

According to present procedure, requisitions from the British will be received by Procurement through the LeaseLend Administration and handled in the same manner as domestic purchases for the U. S. Government. Awards will be made to successful bidders complying with conditions, U. S. specifications, grades or standards, certificates of inspection, grade marking, etc. as specified in the Invitation to Bid, or with requirement specifications of the British Purchasing Commission, as indicated in the Invitation to Bid.

Invitations to Bid will be sent to those manufacturers (sawmills, wood fabricating plants, etc.) and dealers on lists maintained by the Procurement Division as authorized and recognized by them as in a position to supply lumber and timber products as called for. Attention is called to the fact that many exporters, Webb pomerene Corporations, that regularly handle the export of manufacturing mills, but do not export themselves, are not, in every instance, on the Procurement Division,s present dornestic list of suppliers.

Purchasing will be made for the United States Government and title will remain until such purchases made for the British has been turned over to them at such port or debarkation points as specified by the British I\{inistry of War Transport or other authorized official. If and when necessary, lumber and timber products u'ill be moved on Government bills of lading to such ports for export.

The British Government, through the Timber Controller, states that in addition to the customary lumber and timber products considered as essential for war purposes, purchasing under lend-lease would include the following:

"Silver" spruce (Sitka spruce), airplane plywood and veneers, pitch pine (Southern yellow), Port Orford cedar, and certain kinds of hardwoods required for special purposes such as tough ash, oak, hickory, cooperage, and some poplar (yellow) and cypress."

Where formerly British purchases of special lumber items such as cooperage, battery separators, etc. have been handled through private trade channels, buf subject to import license, the Timber Controller, in order to simplify matters under Lend-Lease purchasing, is arranging to take over the purchasing of these special items so that in the future the Timber Control Department of the Ministry of Supply will be the sole importers of lugrber and timber products without exception. This procedure will not in any instance alter purchasing under Lend-Lease as carried on by the Procurement Division as outlined above.

Acceptance of purchases for the British at the point of export and transfer of title will be paramount to final acceptance by the British. In order to insure the British Timber Controller of the quality, grade and species required and specified, the Procurement Division will cooperate to any reasonable extent in incorporating in the Invitation to Bid definite and complete specifications or other qualifying regulations as submitted by the British authorities.

American firms qualified to bid, and interested in receiving Invitations to Bid from Procurement, under lend-lease to the British, should make request in writing to the Procurement Division.

Fire Damages Marcola Mill

Fire swept the lumber town of Marcola, Ore., July 14, destroying the planing mill, dry kilns, trucks and 1,000,000 feet of lumber of the Fischer Lumber Company. Eleven homes were also burned.

Competition Betw een Delense Agencies New Folder on Finishing Knotty Pine Threatens Price Boost, Say Lumbermen Paneled Walls

Washington, Jnly 11.-The Lumber and Timber Products Industry today recommended to defense officials the establishment of a central purchasing system for forest products as an alternate to present scattered and unorganized procurement.

Five representatives of the forest industries told Donald M. Nelson, Director of Division of Purchases, OPM, that the government is, to a large degree, competing with itself through diverse and unrelated buying agencies' The lumbermen said that a continuation of uncorrelated buying, in the face of an increasing demand for forest products as substitutes for "bottleneck" raw materials, will result in needless price advances.

The lumbermen pointed out that at least 12 different federal agencies are buying forest products direct from manufacturers or wholesalers, and are daily competing with each other; that these are in addition to hundreds of contractors seeking such products for defense housing, railway car building, ship and shipyard constrttction. They added that scattered buying, including the use of priorities and the exercise of emergency powers, is threatening to throw the orderly supply of lumber for defense requirements into confusion.

The forest products representatives, members of the I-umber and Timber Products Defense Committee, established last year. suggested that government buying be centered in three purchasing offices and that consideration be given to more extensive use of t'stock pile" lumber purchases. The three central agencies suggested were: One to care for the lumber requirments of the Army and Treasury departments; one to provide centralized purchasing of car material needed by the railroads and car construction companies; and a third for Navy and Navy ship construction needs.

The industry also asked that a priority rating for the equipment and supplies needed in the production of lumber and timber products be established, and pointed out that a ferv pounds of "bottleneck" materials used in mill and logging equipment could be a means of production of forest products sufficient to replace tons of scarce raw materials for both defense and civilian use.

It was also suggested that defense agencies facilitate

Portland, Oregon, July 16.-"Treatments for Finishing Knotty Pine Paneled Walls" is the title of a new 4-page folder published by the Western Pine Association. It includes new and comprehensive data on finishing treatments for walls paneled with Western Pines as well as carpentry information on how to install the paneling. This folder is designed to supplement the information contained in the two illustrated 16-page booklets the Association has previously published on the subject of Knotty Pine paneli.rg. One of these popular brochures is titled, "Paneling Old or New Interiors with Real Pine," which features the use of Ponderosa Pine for interior paneling. The other is called "Beautiful Paneled Walls of Genuine White Pine." It deals with Idaho White Pine.

Painters and Interior decorators rvill find much helpful information in this Folder No. 'lO7 about appropriate colors and finishing treatments for use on pine paneling' More than 24 formulas of new and modern finishes that can be mixed on the job are briefly described. For persons preferring to use ready-mixed stains or other prepared finishes on Knotty Pine walls, representative products of 38 manufacturers are listed.

Specific suggestions also are given in this new folder for the use of carpenters and builders relative to the proper handling of paneling stock prior to use as well as pointers rvhich, if followed, will insure a first-class paneling installation. There are sketches to show base and cornice assemblies and methods for applying pine paneling to masonry and wood frame construction and over old plastered wallsSingle copies of Folder No. 407, "Treattnents for Finishing Knotty Pine Paneled Walls," will be furnished free by the Western Pine Association, 510 Yeon Bldg., Portland, the flow of forest products by confining specifications to standard grades and sizes. Designers were urged to base their specifications on use of generally available commercial species and permit as many species as possible to be included.

The recommendations to Mr. Nelson were made by a committee composed of M. L. Fleishel, Shamrock, Florida, Chairman; Walter J. Neils, Libby, Montana; Corydon Wagner, Tacoma, Washington; J. A. Currey, Nerv York, and H. H. Steidle, Washington, D. C.