

NATIONAL AFFORESTATION 



and 1,360 miles are owned or controlled by 

 railway companies. 



During the war the Government has con- 

 trolled practically the whole of the main 

 waterways of the United Kingdom, either 

 through the Railway Executive Committee, 

 which controls the railway-owned canals, 

 or through the establishment of the Canal 

 Control Committee, which controls 1,226 

 miles of independent waterways in England 

 and Wales and 304 miles in Ireland. In 

 England and Wales 2,251 miles out of about 

 2,500 miles of the most important waterways 

 are under Government control. 



The railway-owned canals have been man- 

 aged by the Railway Executive Committee, 

 which has been represented on the Canal 

 Control Committee by the acting manager of 

 the London and North- Western Railway 

 Company. There can be no question that the 

 arrangements which have been made for the 

 working of the canals during the war have 

 been of great public value, and have relieved 

 the railways of a considerable volume of heavy 



144 



