Be view of Revieiis, 1 ill 1 13. 



849 



The Rev 



EDITED BY 



EVIEWS 



HENRY STEAD. 



NOVEMBER, 1913. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 



A Coming Revolution. 



Far the most drastic reform the 

 Liberal Government has proposed at 

 home is the scheme with regard to land 

 tenure outlined by Mr. Lloyd George. 

 Beside this revolutionary measure 

 national insurance, old age pensions, 

 Home Rule, and Welsh disestablishment 

 sink into comparative insignificance. 

 The Chancellor stated that his pro- 

 gramme is not unauthorised, and that he 

 spoke on behalf of Mr. Asquith and the 

 whole Cabinet. This means that the 

 most powerful political party in Eng- 

 land is definicely committed to a policy 

 of land tenure reform which will in time 

 entirely alter the face of Britain. This 

 will now be the chief plank of the 

 Liberal Party. By it Mr. Asquith and 

 his colleagues will stand or fall. In- 

 directly, but none the less surely, Mr. 

 George's proposals will affect Australia. 

 The steady exodus to Canada and the 

 Commonwealth is beginning to alarm 

 economists and thinking people at home. 

 This scheme, the Chancellor frankly 

 says, is devised to stop the country 

 being bled in this way. What is con- 

 sidered a justifiable emigration has been 

 largely exceeded of late years ; this 

 exodus will be reduced to its right pro- 

 portions as soon as the land reform sug- 



gestions become law. W'e ought to be 

 bestirring ourselves to find other sources 

 of supply. The Panama exhibition 

 could help us, and there are still plenty 

 of people available in Germany, Scandi- 

 navia, and other parts of Europe. 



What the Proposals are. 



The proposals, not very definite }et, 

 have already thrown the Unionist Party 

 into a state of almost inarticulate rage. 

 Landlords and those who hold ever to 

 the old order of things are horrified to 

 find the Chancellor laying sacrilegious 

 hands upon the sacred edifice of pro- 

 perty which has been built up in Great 

 Britain through the centuries. The idea 

 is for the State to assume complete con- 

 trol of the monopoly of land. It will 

 not necessarily acquire it, but would see 

 that all tenants were fairly treated, and 

 for this purpose would appoint commis- 

 sioners, whose duty it would be to re- 

 ceive complaints from all tenant 

 farmers. They would have power to 

 reduce rents and regulate them gene- 

 rally, having regard to labourers' wages 

 and temporary agricultural depression. 

 There is a shortage of 120,000 labourers' 

 cottages in England to-day ; the Gov- 

 ernment intends to build them. Uncul- 

 tivatable land would be used for affores- 



