336 POSSIBILITIES OF THE SITUATION 



would I give County Councils (as proposed in some 

 quarters) power compulsorily to acquire land for such 

 purposes. Not only would a policy of this kind open 

 the door to grave abuses (since the authority, armed 

 with compulsory powers, would naturally want the 

 best slices out of an estate, rejecting portions less 

 desirable), but the whole difficulty at present found in 

 the way of acquiring land for small holders could, in 

 most cases, be much better met on the lines set forth 

 in the preceding pages. There would be less objection 

 to a local authority renting land to let out as ' allot- 

 ments,' but even here the example of what has been 

 done at Aylestone and elsewhere suggests that the 

 intervention of a local authority is not indispensable. 



Although, however, as a matter of principle, I should 

 be opposed to the granting of compulsory powers of 

 purchase, those of the land-owners who still cherish a 

 spirit of hostility towards the small holdings movement, 

 and refuse to make any concession whatever in other- 

 wise desirable districts, where they have, and seek to 

 maintain, a monopoly of the soil, may find before long 

 that the growing force of public opinion will exercise 

 such pressure on the Legislature that the enactment of 

 compulsory powers of purchase may prove to be un- 

 avoidable. Much will depend on the attitude of the 

 land-owners themselves. If they recognise adequately 

 the trend of events and submit in time, and with good 

 grace, to what is clearly the inevitable, they may check 

 the movement now proceeding in favour of compulsion ; 

 and certain it is that they never had greater oppor- 

 tunities than those that are now being opened out to 

 them. In most cases, as I have said, no great difficulty 

 should be experienced. As regards the remainder, if an 

 attitude of unreasonable hostility towards the small 

 holder be persisted in, even by a minority, to the 



