EVOLUTION OF THE A.O.S. 129 



DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONERS' POLICY. 



In the second report of the Development Commissioners, 

 being the report for the year ended March 3ist, 1912, it 

 is stated : 



The arrangements for assisting the organisation of co-opera- 

 tion in Great Britain have been settled in outline. The principle 

 adopted by the Commissioners has been in substance to utilise 

 the existing voluntary societies which have done the work in the 

 past, and entrust its extension to those bodies, reconstituted and 

 strengthened by the admission of representative elements from 

 outside. Two reasons have weighed with the Commissioners in 

 adopting this policy. In the first place, they think that co- 

 operation is particularly the kind of movement to which it is 

 essential to retain the enthusiasm of voluntary workers. They 

 fear that the grant of Government assistance, and the consequent 

 measure of Government control, may to some extent weaken the 

 spontaneous character of the movement ; but they feel that it 

 has a better chance of surviving under the arrangements now 

 made, than if the necessary assistance which the Commissioners 

 were glad to supply had been given to official bodies. Secondly, 

 the geographical and other limitations of the available public 

 authorities, at least in England and Wales, render them incon- 

 venient and probably expensive agents for this particular purpose. 

 The natural co-operative divisions of the country do not follow 

 county boundaries, nor is the area which one organiser and his 

 assistants can cover confined to one county. 



Information is given as to the course taken by the Com- 

 missioners (on the lines already stated) in regard to the 

 organisation of co-operation among agriculturists in England 

 and Wales during the year covered by their report, and they 

 say concerning the reconstitution of the Agricultural 

 Organisation Society, in accordance with the terms of their 

 grant : 



Owing to legal and other difficulties, the reconstitution of the 

 Society probably cannot be effected before the end of the present 

 summer. Meanwhile the Commissioners propose to recommend 

 such grants as may be necessary to enable the Society to carry 

 on its work pending reorganisation ; when that event takes place 

 they hope that the new Governing Body of the Society will be able 

 to submit a scheme of extension which will command their 

 approval and the Treasury's. 



The action of the Commissioners in regard to the Agri- 

 A.O. K 



