Home-Grown Timber (Marketing)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 30 April 1954.

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Photo of Colonel Sir Ralph Clarke Colonel Sir Ralph Clarke , East Grinstead 12:00, 30 April 1954

I would remind the hon. Member that it was his party which passed the 1947 Act, but that is not the point I wished to make. Does he realise that when the present national forest programme is completed—that is, the programme which embraces both the public and private, sectors of the industry—the position will be that about three million acres will belong to the State and two million to the private owners? What we are asking for today is the introduction of a marketing scheme which, in the long run, will be more important to the State than to the private owner because the State will hold a bigger amount of capital and a larger amount of forest land than the private owner. As I said in my speech, this is a case of a mixed economy, and a mixed economy in which, as time goes on, the State will inevitably have a larger share.