96 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



initial stages long ago. Their Transactions already abounded with 

 more lucid suggestions and more graphic descriptions than any 

 he could give/ and all were practically now convinced that State 

 forests should and must come for Great Britain also. The 

 question before them Was, Can anything be done at the present 

 moment? Is the present a suitable time to press home our 

 convictions upon the Government, or should we wait until the 

 war is over? No doubt the Government's hands are full at 

 present, and one of its chief concerns is where and how to get a 

 supply of timber for its urgent needs, and had we no other 

 excuse than that of being consistently insistent in season and 

 out of season, until our object is attained, we might be persuaded 

 to leave the matter alone just for a little during such a crisis. 

 But the question what is to be done with many of our ex-soldiers 

 and sailors — fit and disabled — cannot be so shelved, and it 

 seemed to him that by pointing out to the Goverriment how well 

 the two objects might dovetail in with each other, congenial and 

 profitable occupation might, on the one hand, be found for many 

 of our returning soldiers and sailors, and at the same time a 

 start be made, under favourable circumstances as to labour 

 supply, with the long delayed scheme of State forestry. He 

 was himself firmly convinced that for the object he had just 

 mentioned — that of providing suitable occupation for ex-soldiers 

 and sailors — afforestation offered much better prospects of 

 success than did small holdings, with which, unfortunately, the 

 Government advisers seemed to be obsessed. If we stayed our 

 hand until the war was over, he feared it would then be said, 

 both of forestry and of national service, by those formerly 

 opposed to these schemes: "Yes! We grant you they should 

 have been adopted long ago, and then we should not have found 

 ourselves in such straits, but the opportunity was lost — and the 

 crisis is now past never to return — the need has gone by, let us 

 turn our attention once more to other things." But that is not 

 so. We can see, were our enemies ever more numerous or 

 stronger than they now are, how our shipping might be seriously 

 interfered with, and timber supplies, even from our own colonies, 



^ Very informative articles appear in Volumes xv. part 3 (1S98): xvii. 

 part 2 (1904): xxi. parts i and 2 (1908): xxii. parts I and 2 (1909): 

 xxiii. part 2 (1910): xxiv. part 2 (1911): xxvi. part 2 (1912) : xx\ii. 

 part 2 (1913): and more especially in the special Volume xxv. dealing 

 with afforestation in Scotland (by Lord Lovat and Colonel Stirling of Keir). 



