WAR'S DESTRUCTION OF BRITISH FORESTS 



1029 



responded generously, but labor and machinery continued 

 to be a source of anxiety. 



For a few months Col. John Southerland acted as 

 executive officer in Scotland and afterwards was asked to 

 transfer to London, and became director of the Com- 

 mittee, with very ample powers. Finding that it was 

 impossible to secure a sufficient number of lumbermen 

 in Great Britain, Lord Selbourne, who was then Minister 

 of Agriculture, approached Lord Kitchener, and as a re- 

 sult the latter cabled to Canada and asked the Dominion 

 Government to provide a battalion of lumbermen. The 

 latter government at once acquiesced, and in the month 



end of the year, and added materially to the output. 

 During the year, the Committee urged the employment 

 of German prisoners of war, and gradually obtained 

 limited supplies of these men for operations. Early in 

 1917 the Government had to reckon with a further 

 decrease in the shipping available for timber and for 

 other purposes, and as timber occupied a very large share 

 of the tonnage it was decided that operations should be 

 commenced in France, so that as little timber might be 

 carried by sea as possible. In considering this matter it 

 was necessary to remember that Great Britain was de- 

 pendent upon France for the provision of pit-wood for 



CANADIAN OPERATION IN SCOTLAND 



A large mill at Knockando, Scotland, erected and operated by a Canadian forestry unit, secured timber from a large area by the use of lumber 

 cables. This photograph shows one cable across the river Spey. The carriage is loaded and the method of operating the cable is clearly indicated. 



of June, 1916, the 224th Canadian Forestry Battalion 

 arrived in England, fully equipped with saw mills 

 and tools. 



In the meantime the Committee was able to make 

 arrangements for the provision of saw mills and of 

 other plant in Great Britain and Belgian and Portuguese 

 labor was utilized in some of the woods. The Committee 

 was still working under extreme pressure, for the im- 

 ported supplies were still decreasing, and Lord Kitchener 

 agreed to demand another battalion of lumbermen from 

 Canada. This battalion reached England towards the 



the Welsh mines. These mines required about 100,000 

 tons per month of pit-wood, the greater bulk of which 

 came from the district of Les Landes and Gironde by 

 sea. The Government decided that it was essential that 

 this supply should be decreased if possible by the pro- 

 vision of mine timber at home, and by this time the gen- 

 eral supply of timber became critical, and the Govern- 

 ment decided that as practically all the wood was re- 

 quired for military purposes the War Office should take 

 control, and they accordingly appointed a Controller of 

 Timber under that department. The Controller of Tim- 



