E.— GEOGRAPHY. 113 



when produced must have been of great value to the country. Owing to 

 lack of revision the value of that map to the country has steadily deterio- 

 rated until now, when it must be widely negligible. I cannot believe that 

 if this map had been in charge of a surveyor it would have been allowed to 

 deteriorate in this way. I cannot believe that he would not have main- 

 tained it and made as accurate a map as possible. I am obviously unable 

 to prove this, but I think that all surveyors will agree with me that if a 

 surveyor had been made definitely responsible for that map he would have 

 looked after it. 



It appears to me, therefore, that France has definitely suffered from 

 allowing this once valuable map to remain in charge of a purely fiscal 

 department. 



Take the question of publication. To survey and map any country is 

 an expensive business ; and it is particularly expensive to carry out a 

 cadastral survey, presuming that it is a reasonably accurate survey, on 

 account of its large scale and the great amount of detail that has to be 

 mapped. Now the cost of reproducing and printing such maps is almost 

 infinitesimal compared with the cost of surveying them ; and it seems to 

 me a penny wise and pound foolish poUcy to refrain from the small extra 

 expense that would be entailed by publication. The maps embody a large 

 amount of information of value to the public, and obtained at public 

 expense. It seems only reasonable, therefore, that this information should 

 be made available to the public. 



Human activities take very similar forms all the world over, though 

 there may be superficial difEerences. Since the world began men have 

 bought and sold houses, estates, lands ; and a usual accompaniment of 

 such sales is a map or plan. In England, where accurate 25-inch plans 

 exist for all cultivated and inhabited country, it is easy to obtain such a 

 plan. In France, where the once good plans no longer have any value, 

 they must be made afresh. Here again I think we may say that France 

 has suffered through not carrying through her survey policy to its logical 

 conclusion. 



Another point that may be mentioned is the question of military value. 

 European countries assumed prior to the Great War that cadastral maps 

 were of no military value. As the war went on, the demand grew for maps 

 of larger and larger scale. England was no wiser in this respect ; but she 

 was much wiser in her survey policy. Had the war occurred in England 

 it would have been an easy matter to supply maps of any scale reqmred. 

 In France how often must the armies have wished that good, accurate 

 large-scale maps were available ! As it was, we had to make those maps 

 ourselves. We used the hundred-year-old French cadastrals, and were very 

 glad to have them ; but how enormously their value would have been 

 enhanced had they been modern, up-to-date maps ! 



The conclusion seems justified that France has suffered definite dis- 

 advantages owing to her policy of letting her cadastral maps become mere 

 documents of a financial department, and of not carrying out her survey 

 to its complete and logical end ; and the same conclusion will apply to 

 other countries in a similar situation. 



In the U.S.A. and in Canada division of responsibility of another kind 

 used to exist. The disadvantages of such a state of things and the need for 

 unity of control was felt, and has been met, as I have related, by the estab- 

 1929 I 



