250 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



naval action ; other sources by the fear of such 

 action interfering with shipments ; yet other 

 sources by the holding up, through combinations 

 of capital, of supplies in the open market until 

 the issue has been decided and the conqueror 

 can be asked to pay the famine prices which 

 would rule after the great stoppage of production 

 which a general European war would involve. 



The intimate connection between the fighting 

 strength of a people and the soundness or other- 

 wise of its agricultural industry was very strongly 

 impressed upon me during the Balkan War of 

 1912 (when I was with the Bulgarian Army as 

 war correspondent for the Morning Post). The 

 Bulgarian nation was able to carry on its won- 

 derful campaign against the Turkish Empire 

 practically without financial resources, because, 

 in the main, it was a nation of small farmers, 

 and— with the exception of guns and ammuni- 

 tion — produced within its own borders all that 

 was necessary for its sustenance in peace and 

 in war. There had been, however, precaution 

 to see that the national resources thus made 

 available generally by the nature of the occupa- 

 tion of the people should be fairly distributed 



