DISCUSSION ON REPORT OF FORESTRY SUB-COMMITTEE, I39 



may look forward to this diminution in their numbers with 

 complaisance. 



" I believe it is true that of civilised countries Great Britain 

 and Turkey are the only ones which lack an organised Forest 

 service. Let us hope that Turkey may soon be left in her 

 splendid isolation." 



The Chairman, in inviting a general discussion, said : — " I 

 think we may congratulate the speakers that not one of them 

 has exceeded his time. I think all of you will agree with me 

 that one was amazed at the amount of matter they were able 

 to get into such a short space. 



"Might I just say a word or two myself? I think there are 

 many points of interest, but of course we cannot discuss the 

 whole thing. What seems the most important point is the 

 question of the constitution of the authority. Unfortunately in 

 this there seems to be some kind of idea that it is a personal 

 matter. It is not a personal question at all. The whole 

 question is that this afforestation scheme is to be carried out 

 for the benefit of the country, and the only question we 

 have to consider is what will be the best for the country. 

 If any think that attacks have been made on them personally, 

 it is not upon them but upon the system. This Forest service 

 means a very large number of men, and they won't be all 

 equal. Some may be better than others, but you must have 

 encouraging prospects, and if you had one Forest service for 

 the whole country is it not obvious that they would have a 

 much better chance of promotion, and that you would obtain 

 better men than if you had two or three different divisions ? I 

 feel that one authority for the whole country is far the best. 

 Then it is said it must be at Whitehall. Why not in the 

 North of England or in Scotland ? There is no necessity for 

 it being in London. When I was in the House of Commons 

 — and anyone who has been there will agree with me — when 

 grants were given to any particular purpose if England got 

 ^100,000, Scotland got an equivalent grant of roughly speaking 

 about one-tenth. So I presume if we had one body in London 

 and one in Edinburgh, for every ;2^i 00,000 spent in England 

 on forestry, we would only get ^10,000. In Scotland there is 

 a much larger area suitable for planting than in England, so 

 that the bulk of the money should be spent here. That is 

 what I think will happen if you have one authority, and that 



