30 THE GREAT WAR 



successful in their competition, because they 

 own the land they occupy, and use the methods 

 which ownership alone can supply. 



The sole remedy for all this and the main 

 method by which the Home Market can be sup- 

 plied by British cultivators, is to apply the incen- 

 tive of occupying ownership to the British 

 farmer. The "Purchase of Land" Bill now 

 before Parliament provides a means to this end. 

 It enacts that as large estates are broken up and 

 sold, the tenant farmers on such estates should 

 be enabled by the aid of the State to become 

 their own landlords ; the whole of the purchase 

 money being advanced by the State at the 

 lowest possible interest, and repayable by annual 

 instalments. In addition to the interest an 

 annual sum of 10s. per cent is to be paid, which 

 would recoup the whole of the purchase money 

 in some sixty-eight years ; when all payments 

 would cease. The purchaser, however, becomes 

 to all intents and purposes the real owner the 

 moment the agreement is signed. We have 

 already applied the system to Ireland with 

 successful and astounding results ; and there is 

 no fair or logical reason for the State to refuse 

 any longer to apply it in Great Britain. 



