The Army and the Rural Problem. 



By colonel HENRY PILKINGTON. 



THE beating of the sword into a plouf,'h- 

 shiie, though now a merely rrietapliorical 

 expression, as well as the converse process, 

 was probably an actual and frequent 

 practice as long ago as the Iron Age. Vet the 

 proposal to turn the modern British soldier into an 

 agriculturist comes with something of what stands for 

 novelty in days when another proverbial phrase tells 

 us that new ideas have vanished from under the sun. 



The Soldiers' I.and Settlement Association, lately 

 formed under the presidency of Field-Marshal Lord 

 .Methuen, seeks by an ancient expedient to remedy a 

 serious and admitted evil of our military system, and 

 at the same time to contribute substantially to the 

 solution (if what is, perhaps, the most pressing problem 

 of nationid and imperial economy. The programme of 

 the Association provides for giving training in agri- 

 culture and allied industries to soldiers, preferably 

 duripg the period of service in the Reserve. Afterwards 

 openings are to be found for the men thus trained as 

 working farmers or employes, either in the United 

 Kingdom or in the Dominions. The evil to be remedied 

 is the deplorable condition into which, often through 

 no fault of their own, many old soldiers drift after their 

 return to civil life. The economic need which will be 

 incidentally, to some extent, dealt with is the need for 

 skilled agric ulturists to restore vitality to the rural 

 industry of these islands, and to open up the illimitable 

 agricultural resources of the oversea Empire. The 

 movement thus initiated has the support, not only of 

 distinguished soldiers, but of many leading statesmen, 

 philanthropists, and experts in rural development. It 

 has before it almost boundless possibilities. In normal 

 times the .\rmy dismisses annually from its ranks 

 between 30,000 and 40,000 men, all in their prime, for 

 the most part in first-class physical condition, accus- 

 tomed to. utive life in the open, and with the inestim- 

 able ad\antagc of disci[)line<l habits. Even if all this 

 constant and considerable stream of vigorous humanity 

 could be turned on to the land — and this is, of course, 

 much more than can be accomplished — the vacant 

 spaces of the Empire which await the plough and olTer 

 desirable homes and fruitful careers to men of European 

 race could absorb the whole for many years to come. 

 'I'he rural problem of the IJritish Empire is a four-fold 

 one. A full solution of it must provirle in the first place 

 for the revival of agriculture at home, where the 

 countryside might contribute much more than it does 

 to the supply of our own markets, and should act as a 

 central school of rural development for the whole 

 Empire. TIkii it is desirable to expedite the settlement 

 of the enormous areas over which our (lag (lies in the 

 temperate zones. And one of the oversea Dominions 

 DO sesscs Viist tracts of rich soil King within the 



tropics. Australia will not lightly surrender her 

 ambition to remain entirely a white man's country. 

 And tropical South Africa, not yet technically included 

 in a " Dominion," demands a considerable population 

 of European race. Lastly, agriculture must remain the 

 chief economic resource of the Dependencies, in which 

 the welfare and progress of coloured peoples are the 

 first objects of our policy, but where the leadership of 

 white men is essential. Any well-devised system of 

 agricultural training naay ad\-ance the solution of all 

 four departments of the problem ; but there is one 

 department of it — the settlement of white men in the 

 tropics — with regard to which the military scheme is 

 peculiarly qualified to gi\e help. There is unquestion- 

 ably among the inhabitants of this country a certain 

 small proportion to whom life and work in hot climates 

 is neither distasteful nor detrimental. Hut it is impos- 

 sible to discover those who possess this qualification for 

 tropical settlement until they have been tested by 

 experience. The .Army life is the only one which pro- 

 vides the test for any considerable number. It seems 

 to follow that the enthusiasts for a white Australia and 

 the organisers of Rhodesian development may look 

 to the new movement and to the Army for the first 

 essentials of their purposes more hopefully than to any 

 other source. This consideration, howe\er, though 

 interesting, is a matter of only secondary importance. 

 The first aim of the Association will be settlement on 

 the land at home; the second, emigration to the 

 temperate regions of Australasia, South .\frica, Canada, 

 and Newfoundland. Hut, of course, each mdividual 

 must be left free to choose his destination for himself. 

 With all its possibilities the lack of training men for 

 settlement and settling them on the land is not likely 

 to prove an easy one. It is, however, clearly possible, 

 because the economic basis is sound, and because the 

 human material to lie dealt with should be found, on 

 the whole, of admiralile quality for the object in view. 

 Agriculture, as the ( hief produttise industry and the 

 source of almost all the |)rime necessaries of human 

 existence, is the most essential of all activities. It can 

 never cease to be profitable on the whole. It is capable 

 of unlimited expansion. Some may be inclined to 

 questi(<n the fitness of the average soldier as a recruit 

 to country life. It is, unfortunately, true that the 

 Army contributes a large proportion of failures to the 

 employment market. Hut the circumstances should be 

 carefully considered before the blannc for this state of 

 things is charged entirely against the character of the 

 soldier. We are i'om[)elled bv conditions which cannot 

 be changed, by the need lor finding garrisons in many 

 distant parts of the world, and at the same lime main- 

 taining adequate reserves, to adopt a period of service ' 

 with the colours which is neither " short," as the 



