THE RETURNING ARMY 41 



faced twenty years ago. It is also entirely unlike that 

 of Free Trade Denmark, since Denmark has never had 

 to keep a difficult balance between industrial and 

 rural life. Rural life is her one life. In Denmark 

 there is no exodus from the country to the towns 

 because there are no great manufacturing industries 

 to draw the people away. When our Army is de- 

 mobilised, men returning to civil life will make up 

 their minds within a month what they mean to do 

 for a living. The Minority Report estimates that 

 from 5 to 10 per cent, of those who are serving under 

 arms will be disposed for the open Ufe of the land 

 after the war. That means from a quarter to half a 

 million of men. The return obtained by Sir Douglas 

 Haig from 97,000 men at the front showed that of 

 these 17,000 wanted a life on the land either here or 

 in the Dominions. The figures varied in different 

 units ; in two mainly urban battalions 5 per cent., 

 and in two battalions mainly composed of miners, 



9 per cent, wanted it ; of a Suffolk battalion 46 per 

 cent, wanted it. But it must be expected, quite 

 apart from these striking indications, that many men 

 who return to their old jobs in stuffy offices or in 

 mines will soon find them intolerable, and that others 

 will find that their old jobs are no longer open to 

 them. While the fighting men have been away trades 

 have been reorganised, and even the full restoration 

 of Trade Union customs cannot obliterate all that 

 has happened. It would not be surprising if quite 



10 per cent, of the discharged men turned their 



thoughts to the land. 



But what land ? Why should they stay on British 

 4* 



