THE MINORITY REPORT 



THE MINORITY REPORT 



To the Right Hon. The Earl of Selborne, K.G., 

 G.C.M.G., President of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries. 



A. — General Statement op Differences from the 



Majority, and Introduction 

 My Lord, 



1. Although the Majority Report contains much 

 with which we cordially agree, we are unable to sign it. 

 Grenerally speaking, they hold the same views as we 

 do as to what is desirable, but they do not think it 

 practicable to do much. They express general approval 

 of the policy we advocate, but are unwilling to advise 

 the measures by which alone, in our opinion, it can be 

 carried out. 



The " general approval " expressed by the Majority is con- 

 tained in the following paragraphs of their Report : 



" 175. We have in Section A. of this Report considered the 

 steps which should be taken to provide for agriculture after 

 the War a supply of labour equal to that employed before 

 the War ; but we are convinced (as we have already stated 

 in the introduction to our Report) that more than this is 

 required in the highest interests of the nation. In our 

 opinion, if advantage is not taken of the impending release of 

 many thousands of able-bodied and energetic young men 

 from the naval and military forces and the munition factories 

 to secure a great reinforcement of our farm workers and 

 rural population, an exceptional opportunity of increasing 

 the nation's strength, both for peace and war, will have been 

 lost. A healthy rural population forms a valuable recruiting 

 ground for those departments of urban industry which re- 

 quire a high standard of physique, and for the class of emi- 

 grants chiefly desired by our Dominions. Indeed, it is 

 frequently urged that it is highly desirable, on the grounds 



