IMPERIAL CONSIDERATIONS 170 



at the expense of the State (in reformatories and under 

 the Poor Law) should be induced to go in for a career 

 on the land. 



(3) By estabhshing training centres, and group settle- 

 ments, for townsmen who would like to take up an 

 agricultural occupation. There are many examples 

 showing how successfully this can be done, provided 

 there is careful selection. 



If these measures are to be successful and a career 

 on the land is to attract large numbers to it, the con- 

 ditions of life in the country and the organization of the 

 agricultural industry will have to be much better than 

 they have been, or even now are, in the British Empire. 

 Above all, the cultivators must be confident that they 

 have the good-will of the nation behind them ; and 

 that the needed measures will be taken to secure them 

 against loss. If the production of food entails a loss to 

 the producer, the inevitable result is a reduction in the 

 number of producers. The importance of this is 

 beginning to be realized ; but we have a long way to 

 travel before we can catch up the nations which have 

 given careful and ordered thought to the development 

 of their land during the past fifty years. 



And here we come to the root of the whole matter ; 

 things are as they are with us, because we have not 

 given thought (let alone ordered or careful thought) to 

 the development of the land. 



We have given our thought to the development of 

 urban civilization, with what success is open to question, 

 and we have neglected our rural civilization. We have 

 failed in development ; for no nation can be said to be 

 fully developed if one important side is left in only a 

 partially developed state, and no degree of development 

 of the other sides can compensate for this. 



