lO 



choice could have been made. Then followed the appointment 

 of an advisory committee, which includes several members 

 of our Society. 



At this point my narrative must cease, and I will leave 

 it to Mr Sutherland, whom we welcome here to-day, to 

 take up the tale. I may say that in his presence here begins 

 to realise one of our fondest dreams. Here is at last a 

 Department of Forestry for Scotland. Let me assure him and 

 his colleagues on the Board of Agriculture that they may count 

 on all the help that our 1400 members can give them. We 

 must not shut our eyes to the difficulties that lie before us 

 and before the Department of Forestry. We are in the toils 

 of the serpent of red tape. In spite of our efforts to keep 

 it free and independent, forestry is now entangled with a 

 number of different departments, some of which in the nature 

 of things can know very little and perhaps do not care very 

 much about the subject. We have not only to reckon with 

 the Board of Agriculture, under which we have been, in my 

 judgment, very wisely placed, but we have also to reckon with 

 the Scottish Office, the Education Department, the Development 

 Commission and the Treasury, and with a body of Members 

 of Parliament who have unfortunately had little experience of 

 the needs of country life. I hope that these gentlemen will 

 at least take care that Scotland is fairly treated as compared 

 with England and Ireland. At this moment the arrangements 

 for the development of forestry are as a matter of fact further 

 advanced in England and Ireland than they are in Scotland, 

 a matter of some importance, not because we grudge our sister 

 countries the honour of being first, but because they have got 

 the pick of the few experts we possess in this subject. You will 

 observe in the recent report of the Development Commissioners 

 this ominous line — 'no official proposals had been received from 

 Scotland by the end of the year.' That was March of last 

 year. I sincerely hope that that line will never appear in 

 their report again. It is evident that this Society cannot for 

 one moment afford to relax its efforts. I am not at all 

 despondent. The ground is now cleared for an advance. 

 I am confident that the Board of Agriculture has every 

 intention to deal fairly with forestry. I am confident that 

 the Development Commissioners have not forgotten, indeed 

 their report shows as much, that forestry is one of the prime 

 objects of the grant that they administer, and that Scotland is 

 the most promising field for it. I find also reason for confidence 

 in the fact, denied now by no one who has studied this question, 

 that silviculture is the backbone of every flourishing highland 

 community in Europe. This fact cannot much longer be dis- 

 regarded by our politicians, nor can the blessings derived from 

 forestry-much longer be denied to the empty glens of Scotland. 



The report was adopted. 



