THE FORESTRY ACT, 1919, AND AFTER. 113 



The Forestry Commissioners were appointed on November 29th, 

 1919. Considerable progress has been made in the organisation 

 of the Department. The purely executive work is in charge of 

 the three Assistant Commissioners, with headquarters at London, 

 Edinburgh and Dubhn. Under the Assistant Commissioners are 

 Divisional Officers, 5 for England and Wales, 4 for Scotland, and 2 

 for Ireland, each with a definite territorial charge. The Divisions 

 in the aggregate cover the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 The Divisional Officer is an experienced forest officer and he is 

 assisted by District Officers who will ultimately all be academically 

 trained men. The Divisional Officer is responsible for all State 

 forest work in his division, as well as for advice to private owners. 

 The District Ofiicers are his assistants for survey, reporting on land 

 for acquisition, preparation of working plans, and similar tech- 

 nical matters. The supervision of planting operations, forest pro- 

 tection, and other routine work are placed in charge of Foresters. 



The Commissioners reserve to themselves the general control 

 of education, research and publication, but the executive work 

 with regard to the foresters' schools and experimental work is 

 attended to by the Assistant Commissioners. For the control of 

 these subjects, there are attached to the headquarters of the 

 Commission an Education and Publications Officer, an Experi- 

 ment officer, an Entomologist, and a Co-ordination officer, the 

 latter to secure co-ordination in technical procedure in the 

 different parts of the United Kingdom. 



The Commission meets once a month for the decision of matters 

 of policy and to review progress. At these meetings the Assistant 

 Commissioners usually attend, as well as such other officers as 

 may be required. The Commissioners keep in touch with actual 

 operations by frequent local inspections. 



Finance is in charge of a Finance officer who is responsible to 

 one of the Commissioners. The keeping of accounts for the 

 individual estates is done by accountants, of whom one is attached 

 to each divisional office. The estimated net expenditure for the 

 financial year 1920—1921 was expected to be £379,000. 



The general business of the Commission is done by the Secretary. 



In collecting their technical staff, the Commission have been 

 able to secure, on the one hand, the services of men who made a 

 study of British forestry in pre-war time, and who were actively 



