70 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



the centres where their activities take place. 

 The cities are spreading out on to the land, 

 until you have the whole country as one 

 great city. This is not a land for peasant 

 proprietors. You are simply creating fresh 

 difficulties when you do it. It is easier to 

 deal, after all, with one owner in a par- 

 ticular district than if you have to deal 

 with five hundred when you have a district 

 transformed into an industrial centre, and 

 that is why I think it would be one of the 

 most fatal delusions that statesmen could 

 embark upon to set up a peasant pro- 

 prietary in this land. My own view is this : 

 The time to consider purchase is not ripe, 

 and when you come to the question of pur- 

 chase there is an alternative purchaser to 

 the peasant. I hope before we decide 

 finally the question of purchase — and that 

 stage has not been reached yet — we shall 

 consider carefully the reversion to the 

 State." 

 I suspect that this may not represent the 

 considered Liberal view, and that if there is 

 any declaration from the Liberal Party, as a 



