WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 227 



in India. The Agricultural Department of the Bank of 

 Egypt had, in its tentative efforts, before the Agricultural 

 Bank was in existence, to send men about with bags of 

 gold upon their backs, to persuade fellaheen to take loans. 

 And eventually (even before the passing of the Five-Feddan 

 Act, which places the credit originally intended altogether 

 out of the question) its successor found itself with about 

 forty thousand unpaid claims on its hands, the mere number 

 of which made recourse to the Law Courts impracticable. 



There is no instance on record of direct State interference 

 in this matter bearing good fruit. Rather has it been found 

 to act demoralisingly. And there is very plain evidence of 

 its being often abused for political purposes. 



Evidently from a desire to keep the conduct of the matter 

 in its own hands, our Board of Agriculture has lately come 

 to an arrangement with County Councils, offering on the 

 State's behalf to become guarantor for any overdraft 

 demanded by a farmer which may be first approved by 

 the County Council. It is the latter that the farmer is 

 told to look to for sanction. The County Council is, through 

 its District Committee, to inquire into the merits of the 

 case. And if it pronounces its placet, the State will, so to 

 put it, " back the bill." It will be interesting to watch the 

 result of that experiment. It appears to have come like 

 something resembling a godsend in the trying times of 

 war, which, of course, is altogether exceptional — though, 

 to make it really useful, the terms for which under the 

 original scheme loans are to be granted have had to be 

 lengthened. American bankers have not been slow to 

 seize the fact that nothing under a year can be sufficient, 

 with renewals in sight. However, if the arrangement is 

 to help Agriculture on a broad scale, it is evidently not 

 cast on the right lines, let alone that it is bound in general 

 to benefit, not the poor, whose security under the scheme 

 must prove problematical but who need help most, but the 

 wealthy. The seeking of security is all on the old lines of 

 what a man has got. Co-operative credit, as practised 

 abroad, is based upon what a man may be relied upon to 

 earn with his borrowed money. Our scheme is not likely 



