THE CENTRAL FOREST AUTHORITY. I53 



" Great Britain hitherto has had no Forest Administration, 

 and no Forest Service worth speaking of. We have to look 

 abroad if we are to find a model of efficient machinery for 

 carrying out the improvements which we all wish to see made. 

 At the previous meeting, I was allowed to submit a paper 

 explaining my reasons for wishing to follow the main lines of 

 the French system. I will not go over that ground again except 

 so far as may be necessary to keep before us the comparative 

 size of the forest areas with which we are dealing. France, 

 with a forest area of more than 20,000,000 acres, with a greater 

 range of climate and variety of timber trees, and with racial 

 differences not less strongly marked than our own, has a single 

 Forest Authority and a single service. According to our some- 

 what unreliable statistics, the forest area of Great Britain and 

 Ireland is very little more than 3,000,000 acres, probably con- 

 siderably less at this moment; and even with the addition of 

 1,770,000 acres recommended by Mr Acland's Sub-Committee, 

 our whole area will still be less than a quarter that of France. 

 Is it wise, is it necessary, is it economical, is it efficient, to 

 divide this small area between three separate Forest Adminis- 

 trations and three separate Forest Services ? Let me give a 

 single point, in particular reference to the Forest Service. 



" It is probable that whatever the organisation may be, a 

 considerable proportion of the future forest officers in Great 

 Britain and Ireland will be Scotsmen. Many of our best men 

 are holding appointments outside Scotland to-day. Do we wish 

 to set up a system of water-tight compartments so that these 

 men, once in the English or Irish service, will find it difficult 

 to return to Scotland ? I think not. By all means let us send 

 our young men to England and other foreign countries where 

 their abilities will gain for tfhem the positions which they 

 deserve ; but don't let us bar the door to their return to Scotland, 

 by setting up against them the barrier of a small independent 

 service. Perhaps it may be said that we have three Boards of 

 Agriculture, and therefore we must have three Forest Adminis- 

 trations. I don't admit the validity of the argument. Why 

 should we make the errors of the past into precedents for the 

 future? It is not an universal precedent; besides our one Navy 

 and one Army, always in our minds and hearts, we have one 

 Board of Trade, one Ministry of Labour, and so on. The 

 creation of three Boards of Agriculture belongs to smaller times 



