A Committee of the Council accordingly arranged to commurii- 

 cate with the Scottish Committee on Women's Employment in 

 the matter, with the result that a large number of women had 

 been placed in various parts of the country. The engagements 

 were temporary, but there is reason to believe that many of the 

 experiments had been successful and would very probably be 

 continued. The War Office and Labour Exchanges were 

 also communicated with regarding the employment of soldiers 

 discharged as unfit for further service with the colours. A 

 memo, on the subject of forestry and other work which might be 

 undertaken by women and partially disabled men was published 

 in the July Transactions. 



Development of Afforestation. 



At the General Meeting of the Society, held on 14th July 

 last, the following Resolution was unanimously adopted : — 



"The Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society in General Meeting 

 assembled, while recognising that the first duty of the 

 Nation at this time is to do everything in its power 

 to bring the war to a speedy and successful termination, 

 respectfully points out that at the end of the war a large 

 number of soldiers and sailors who return may not be 

 able to resume their former occupations and may desire 

 to find outdoor employment and a comfortable home in 

 the country, which, under present circumstances, they 

 would not be able to do, and that Afltorestation — with 

 which might be advantageously combined Small Holdings 

 and other Rural Industries — if carried out on a consider- 

 able scale in various centres, would afford suitable 

 employment, under healthy conditions, for a large and 

 ever-increasing rural population. The Society, therefore, 

 without repeating the now familiar arguments in favour 

 of Afforestation, all of which have been greatly 

 strengthened by events since the war began, respectfully 

 draws the attention of the Government to the urgent need 

 of immediate preparation for the emergency referred to, 

 and suggests that the Board of Agriculture for Scotland, 

 as the body charged with the care of Forestry in this 

 country, should be authorised to prepare schemes of 

 Afforestation on the lines indicated, and should be 

 assured that adequate funds will be provided to put those 

 schemes into operation whenever the war is over, so as to 

 meet the needs of returning soldiers and sailors and 

 others who desire to settle upon the land." 



In submitting the resolution to the meeting on behalf of the 

 Council, it was made clear that the Society did not depart in any 

 way from the contentions which it had always made as to the 



