LAND AND NATIONAL SAFETY. 253 



good policy of the Act was so generally recog- 

 nized that its operation was nowhere resisted. 

 So great was the voluntary patriotism of the 

 people that the machinery of requisition prac- 

 tically had not to be used in any compulsory 

 form. Goods were brought in voluntarily, 

 wagons, cart-horses and oxen, and all the surplus 

 flour and wheat, and — I have the official figures 

 from the Bulgarian Treasurer — those goods which 

 were obtained in this way totalled in value some 

 £6,000,000. One may anticipate that, in case of 

 a general European war, Germany, Russia, 

 Austria, Italy, France — all the Powers, in fact — 

 would act on the same general lines. A pro- 

 hibition of food export at least would be certain. 

 The danger to Great Britain of a lack of food 

 in war time might, of course, be met in a degree 

 by a system of Government granaries storing 

 grain against the time of crisis. But that 

 would be neither so sure, nor so sound economic- 

 ally, as an increase in local production. If, then, 

 there were no other reasons existing for a steady 

 effort to regenerate the rural industries of Eng- 

 land, there are ample urging to that step in a 

 consideration of the war position. It is an 



