WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 325 



the terms of reference, to consider the economic prospects 

 of agriculture and to issue their Final Report. 



But it was soon made manifest, as I have already inti- 

 mated, that the Government were not serious in appointing 

 the Commission " to consider the economic prospects of 

 agriculture " : they were only serious in obtaining a deci- 

 sion as to the price to offer farmers for their cereals. It 

 was not an unusual line for this Government to take, which 

 ever since its formation has lived from hand to mouth. But 

 the Minister of Agriculture had surely put himself out of 

 court in the eyes of the public, in refusing to allow the 

 presentation of a Final Report by a Commission which his 

 Ministry had created. 



Lord Lee, in a letter addressed to Sir William Peat, stated 

 his objection to any enquiry into security of tenure without 

 the presence of landowners on the Commission, and that the 

 subjects which the Commission intended to investigate were 

 outside the terms of reference and had already been dealt 

 with by Lord Selborne's Committee. 



Now Lord Selborne's Committee was appointed in 1916, 

 and since then the ownership of half the farms in many coun- 

 ties in England and Wales had changed hands. Thus new 

 conditions had been created giving farmers a sense of 

 insecurity greater than they had hitherto experienced. 



In a dignified, but scathing letter, signed by the sixteen 

 members of the Commission (that is, by the total body since 

 seven had resigned) addressed to Lord Lee, it was pointed 

 out to him that at the very first sitting of the Commission 



"it was resolved, one member alone dissenting, 'that the 

 Royal ('"in mission agrees to consider the subject of security of 

 tenure in relation to the costs of production and to the general 

 economic prospects of the farming industry.' It had thus been 

 resolved by the Commission and apparently agreul by the Gov- 

 ernment that S( eurity of tenure is a factor which cannot be omit- 

 t( d in any adequate examination of the economic conditions 

 of production. The Commission had at no stage resolved 

 or intended to consider this subject otherwise than in its rela- 

 tion to agricultural production, but they had thought it right to 

 point out to II. M. Government that the problem could not bo 

 discussed at all unless the possible solutions were allowed to 

 be examined without restriction of their method or scope." 



