138 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



put new land under the plough, drain and irri- 

 gate, or carry out any other approved agricul- 

 tural improvement. 



I do not anticipate that there would be much 

 call for money for compulsory purchase of land. 

 That is a semi-penal process which should be 

 invoked only in case of necessity. But in cases 

 where a landlord was choking the growth of 

 some locality by his monopoly of the land — if 

 such cases exist — compulsory purchase is the 

 legitimate remedy. Probably the bulk of the 

 credit would be devoted to assisting existing 

 farmers and landlords to put their land to better 

 use, to helping tenants to become owners, and 

 in time to helping graduates of agricultural 

 colleges on to the soil. 



I fear that such a programme will be looked 

 at sourly in some quarters, where the govern- 

 ing idea seems to be not to help the soil back 

 to cultivation, but to bait the landlord. In 

 this, however, as in every other phase of the 

 land question, if personal spites and class hatreds 

 are to be allowed to govern the discussion, a 

 sensible decision is impossible. Looking at the 

 position as an outsider, apart from all British 



