80 THE MINORITY REPORT 



12. The necessary measures to enable the industry 

 to employ the men and afford the conditions should, 

 we think, be regarded by Government and Parliament 

 not as controversial, but as emergency legislation, to be 

 passed during the war. 



The Dominions are not postponing action. They 

 are all taking the necessary steps now. It may be 

 that, with their large areas of unsettled land, their 

 problem is much simpler than ours. They can settle 

 unlimited numbers of men. We agree with the views 

 of the Majority that the numbers who can be settled 

 at home within a short time is very limited, chiefly 

 because the acquisition of suitable land in England and 

 Wales is difficult and costly. Moreover, farmers and 

 labourers on the land cannot be turned out wholesale 

 even to make room for sailors and soldiers. If we are 

 to provide a livelihood for large numbers of ex-Service 

 men on the land, it must, for the great bulk of them, 

 be by employment rather than by settlement. And 

 the problems of providing " Employment " are for us 

 more difficult than those of " Settlement." * "Em- 

 ployment " in England lacks both the sentiment and 

 the glamour of " Settlement " in the Dominions. The 

 settler anywhere is his own master, with all the attrac- 

 tions of independence. In the Dominions the settler's 

 life means, to the enterprising and adventurous, the 

 romance of great freedom, and the unknown possi- 



1 By " Employment " we understand employment at wages upon 

 the farm or holding of another person, and by " Settlement " the 

 settlement of men in holdings of their own, whether as proprietors 

 or tenants. It is obviously in the former capacity, i.e. as wage 

 earners, that the vast majority of ex-Service men who desire to 

 come on the land will, at least in the first instance, have to earn 

 their liveUhood. 



