PREFACE 



The Minority Report of the Committee appointed to 

 consider the employment on the land of discharged 

 soldiers and sailors, with the addenda printed in these 

 pages, represents a considered effort, the first to appear 

 with any public authority, to set out a programme for 

 the reconstruction of rural life. In this respect the 

 Minority Report marks a considerable revolution in 

 public opinion with regard to the position of agriculture 

 in the United Kingdom, a revolution that had been 

 obscurely progressing during the last thirty years. 



A generation ago the prevailing attitude towards the 

 problems presented by the condition of farming and 

 the development of the countryside was one of com- 

 plete laissez faire, and that point of view has governed 

 the action of Parliament and of the Departments of 

 State ever since. The opinion was then freely expressed 

 that British agriculture had ceased to be a matter of 

 any account in the national economy. Our population 

 was open to draw its food supplies from the whole world ; 

 it would be turned to better use by engaging in the 

 higher and more civilised forms of industry with which 

 it could profitably pay for the more primitive products 

 of the soil. As for the countryside its destiny was to 

 become the playground of the urban populace ; the rich 

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