REPORT OF GENERAL MEETING. 33 



Middle Ward is concerned, a good deal of blame for nothing 

 being done lies with the Treasury. They refused to sanction 

 our putting on to the hillside plants which we would have had 

 to burn if we had not got consent. They refused consent on 

 two occasions, but through the good offices of Mr Duncan 

 Millar, M.P., we got an interview with Mr Montagu, and Mr 

 Montagu admitted that his effort was going to waste ^t, in order 

 to save jQi. We came away with the consent that we should 

 go on with our afforestation scheme. He gave us a very small 

 grant, but we hope to go back and get more. The result is that 

 this spring we have planted 200 acres under our afforestation 

 scheme. That has been done by two agencies — German prison 

 labour and the schoolboys from Glasgow, and I think the 

 manner in which it has been carried out is eminently satisfactory. 

 About every tenth man among the prisoners of war — and we had 

 over 300 — is an expert forester or nurseryman. I am quite sure 

 it is far better for these men to be employed than to keep them 

 cooped up behind barbed wire. On the question of the quality 

 of the labour I would say this, that the German labour has been 

 very good provided you do not bunch up your men. If you keep 

 them well spread out they work very diligently, but if you allow 

 them to come too close together and to begin to talk and smoke,, 

 it is not economical. 



" We have, I think, as a Society, been at every Secretary for 

 Scotland, and we have been at other agencies. The Middle 

 Ward national scheme was supported both by the Board of 

 Agriculture and by the Development Commissioners. It 

 was the Treasury that blocked it, and it has been passing 

 through my mind that the idea of starting one department 

 exclusively for forestry may be found in actual practice doubtful, 

 because you will get one official pulling against the other. 

 Forestry is intermingled with sport and agriculture, and will 

 always be and can never be anything else, and I do say that if you 

 could get a man at the head of affairs who has sympathy for all 

 three, and has practical experience in all three, you will get far 

 more readily forward. I beg to move that we appoint a deputa- 

 tion to ask for an interview with the Secretary for Scotland." 



Mr Carlow, who was invited to reply to certain of the points 

 raised in the discussion, said : — " One of the speakers mentioned 

 the fact of the price of pit-wood being higher after the war than 

 it was before. I think he is right there, and I think that forest 



VOL, XXXII. PART I. C 



