THE CONFERENCE AND DINNER. I 79 



18. The Conference and Dinner. 



The President presided over a full attendance at the Confer- 

 ence, which was held after lunch (p. 177) in the Goold Hall, 

 St Andrew Square. 



The Chairman said : — " It is my duty, as President of the 

 Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, to offer a very hearty 

 welcome to the representatives of the Forest Administrations of 

 foreign countries, of India, and of the British dominions beyond 

 the seas, whose presence here to-day lends to our meeting unusual 

 importance and interest. I could wish for the sake of my hearers 

 that this grave duty and high honour were in abler hands — but 

 at least in undertaking it I am acutely conscious of its import- 

 ance and my responsibility. 



"First, it is fitting that we should express to our guests our 

 appreciation of the very kind reception given by their respective 

 Governments to our request that they would send representatives 

 of their Forest iA.dministrations to our Sixtieth Anniversary. 

 Their Governments might have said to us : — ' You are a private 

 Society without any official standing in your own country, and, 

 therefore, we cannot be officially represented at your festival,' 

 and if they had said so, we could have had no just cause of com- 

 plaint. But their Governments have taken a larger and more 

 generous view, possibly in the knowledge that we possess the 

 patronage of our King, and that in the absence of any State 

 Department of Forestry for Scotland this Society has laboured 

 for many years at work which, in their own countries, is carried 

 out by the State. I am sure that all the foreign, English and 

 Colonial representatives will understand how very welcome to 

 us, as a Society, is the recognition of which their presence here 

 to-day is the happy token. 



" There is no need to dwell on the blessings of the state of 

 peace which makes such meetings as this possible, or on the 

 infinite good to international relations which comes of these 

 opportunities. But it is not only as witnesses of our recognition, 

 and as messengers of peace and goodwill that we welcome you 

 to-day. Our warmest welcome to you is from foresters to brother 

 foresters — a greeting between men bound in the strong ties of 

 common interests and enthusiasms, between kindred spirits which 

 no difference of race and language can keep apart. 



