CHAPTER VII 



WHAT ACTION IS PRACTICABLE 



But apart from these general considerations, what is 

 the immediate programme that can be put forward 

 with any hope of realization, a programme that neither 

 calls for too violent an action by the State nor expects 

 too immediate a reform on the part of the farmers ? 

 We must not hope for any rapid change, simply because 

 we are limited by the numbers and qualifications of the 

 men actually in occupation of the land ; we can neither 

 add to them nor replace them all at once. To get 

 another million acres of plough land out of the present 

 race of farmers will represent an enormous advance, 

 as much as we may hope to attain while we are prepar- 

 ing for the more drastic action — the newer men and 

 methods by which alone can be realized the five to ten 

 million additional acres that are necessary to the safety 

 of the State. We may give ourselves a generation 

 perhaps in which to work to this end; for that space of 

 time at least we may expect that peace will be ensured 

 by the exhaustion produced by this war and by the 

 remembrance of the suffering it entailed. We have, 

 then, to shape our policy immediately to meet the 

 dislocation and relieve the unemployment consequent 

 on the disbandment of the armies, and so prevent the 

 permanent loss of men to the country by emigration ; 



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