THE IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS IN MILITARY DEFENCE. 223 



education and by extending the opportunities to profit by it, by 

 encouraging research, and by the erection of suitable public 

 buildings. 



The Department has been singularly fortunate in the type of 

 officer that has joined its ranks, whether selected, as at first, 

 from the Indian Staff Corps and elsewhere, or trained on the 

 Continent or at Coopers Hill College. Perhaps the loneliness, 

 hardships, and unhealthiness of the life in the past deterred 

 those who did not possess an innate love of the jungle from 

 joining the profession ; at any rate we have had no lack of men 

 who have lived amongst the people and influenced them for 

 good, whose names are still household words in the remote 

 villages of the hills and plains, and who have laid the sure 

 foundations for the establishment and progress of State forestry 

 in India. 



32. The Importance of Forests in Military Defence. 



By Lieut. -Colonel jVIartin Martin (Retired). 



The members of our own Society require no further argument 

 to heighten their appreciation of the national value of forests, 

 and of their establishment on a sufficient scale in the immediate 

 future, and a large body of the general public is becoming 

 impressed with the same views. But it cannot be said that the 

 Government has been sufficiently stimulated to place the project 

 in the prominent position which its importance necessitates and 

 urgently calls for. 



In party conflict it must be so; Tories and Liberals cannot 

 afford to "throw away points" in the struggle, by devoting their 

 energies to non-contentious business. Moreover, when the 

 balance between the parties is as narrow as it is at present, it is 

 votes that count, and no attention can be expected by those 

 whose interests are mainly outside the chief issues of debate. 

 Hence the rural, the agricultural and the silvicultural community 

 need expect little attention. They are composed in almost equal 

 numbers of adherents of the two parties, and hence their main 

 interests are necessarily indifferent to both. Any argument, 

 therefore, which can force practical forestry to the front, by 

 insistence on any of its diverse claims to attention, may be 

 of present advantage. 



In the matter of military defence against invasion, it may 



