[Serbia]. - Llewellyn, Frederick A. British Economic Mission to Serbia. Technical Section. General Report.

$1,675.00

Rare and confidential: an advance copy of the report of the British mission to Serbia assessing the country's economic situation after the First World War. The personal copy of Frederick A. Llewellyn, technical secretary, architect, surveyor, director of the mission and leading author of the present report.

In 1919 the British government sent delegations to Poland and Serbia with the object on the one hand of investigating the requirements of these countries necessary for rebuilding their damaged industries after the war, and on the other hand to inquire into the opportunities of developing British trade. In their report, the commission addresses issues of engineering and public works, transportation, agriculture, timber, mining, town-planning, and sanitation, including cross sections of the Belgrade sewage, along with sketches of railway infrastructure for coal and ore export. The folding plans, carried out in original hand colour, show the Godomin district near Smederewo, a general map of mineral deposits in Jugoslavia, the proposed site for port development in Belgrade, as well as Split and its surroundings as they were in 1914. The report concludes that "unless the British or another Allied Government which possesses the necessary resources is prepared to afford adequate technical advice and assistance of a practical nature the reconstruction of Serbia will be very materially delayed and the development of the resources of the country will either fall within the economic orbit of our late enemies or be relegated into the distant future".

Loosely inserted is a typed letter from the Commission Internationale de Ravitaillement to the Office of Works on their successful joint venture of the Serbia economic mission, conjoined with 2 typed letters of correspondence between the two politicians Kingsley Wood and Ormsby Gore discussing the new post office building at Dagenham designed by Fred Llewellyn.