4i8 



The Review of Reviews. 



silver bullion and negotiate instruments. The 

 hank would he authorised, when at least one- 

 fourth of its nominal capital is paid up, to issue 

 mortgag-e dehcntures up to an amount not 

 exceeding ten times its paid-up capital, provided 

 the amount of such debentures does not exceed 

 the total amount of outstanding loans redeemable 

 in annual instalments and the debentures of agri- 

 cultural and industrial banks in hand. These 

 debentures to be redeemed at least twice a year 

 by means of drawings in proportion to the total 

 amount of redemption of loans redeemable in 

 annual instalments in the same year, and the 

 debentures of agricultural and industrial banks in 

 hand. 



LOCAL MORTGAGE BANKS. 



The work of the Go\ernment mortgage banks 

 should be on a large scale, the lesser sums being 

 advanced by the local mortgage banks, which 

 should be established in each of the administra- 

 tive localities. They should be permitted to 

 make loans only for the following purposes : — (i) 

 Reclamation of land, irrigation, drainage, and 

 improvement of the fertility of the soil ; (2) con- 

 struction and improvement of farm roads ; (3) 

 settlement in newly reclaimed places ; (4) pur- 

 chase of seeds, young plants, manure, and other 

 materials required in agriculture and industry ; 

 (5) purchase of implements and machines, 

 waggons, or beasts for use in farming and manu- 

 facture ; (fi) improvements in farming and manu- 

 facture not included in the foregoing clauses; (7) 

 rearrangement of farm boundaries; (8) under- 

 takings by credit guilds, purchase guilds, and 

 produce guilds of unlimited liability, and 

 organised under the industrial guilds law. 



LOANS ON IMMOVABLE PROPERTY. 



Loans should be made on the security of im- 

 movable property redeemable in annual instal- 

 ments within a period of not more than thirty 

 years; there should be power to make 

 loans on a similar security, redeemable in 

 a fixed term within a period of not more 

 than five years, provided the total amount 

 of such loans docs not exceed one-fifth of the 

 total amount of loans redeemable in annual 

 instalments (loans made on the security of any 

 immovable property may not exceed two-thirds 

 of the value thereof, as appraised by the bank); 

 to make loans on the same conditions without 

 sccuritv to cities, towns, villages, and other 

 public bodies organised by law; to make loans 

 without security, redeemable in a fixed term 

 within a period of not more than five years, to 

 more than twenty persons combined with joint 

 liability, who are engaged in agriculture or 

 industry, and whose reliability is recognised. 

 Besides, the banks may be entrusted with the 



receipt and disbursement of the public funds 

 locally. 



CREDIT GUILDS. 



Finally, there should be credit guilds, 

 organisations formed by the farmers themselves, 

 regulated by a special law relating to industrial 

 guilds. The idea of these would be to encourage 

 the small farmers and small manufacturers, and 

 when the guilds are organised along prescribed 

 lines they should be entitled to receive loans from 

 the local hypothec banks without security. The 

 guilds should lend funds to the farmers at a low 

 rate of interest and agricultural machines The 

 value of these credit guilds, in helping even the 

 smallest farmers to obtain advances upon easy 

 terms, would be enormous as a means of advanc- 

 ing the rapid development of agriculture. 



WANTED, A NATIONAL COMMITTEE. 



But this is mostly theory, and much work 

 must be done and unflagging interest shown if 

 we are to create the necessary machinery to 

 save our agriculture and to feed urselves. The 

 first action after realisation that the present 

 state of things is wrong is to set it right, but 

 before doing so to take all things into considera- 

 tion. Let a national committee be appointed, 

 or rather be formed, which will study the ques- 

 tion from every point of view. On this com- 

 mittee there should be leaders of all political 

 parties — great landowners and smallholders, 

 professors and farmers. It should conduct a 

 soul-searching enquiry into what is the best way 

 to enable this country to feed itself, and in so 

 doing to keep every year some ;^i8o,ooo,ooo of 

 British money in British hands. That we can 

 feed ourselves admits of no discussion ; how best 

 to do it so that the individual and the nation 

 benefit is the question of immediate importance. 

 In our next number we will deal with existing 

 organisations, and outline both what has been 

 done and how the various forces and ideas may 

 be welded into a national organisation. But 

 whether the progress be slow or rapid, we must 

 never allow ourselves to forget that the farmers 

 are working just as truly for the good of the 

 nation as do those who fight her battles or direct 

 her diplomacy. In one of the Japanese Em- 

 peror's poems occurs a line in which he declares 

 the tiller of his field is achieving for his nation 

 cqu.'il glory with the soldier on the battle-field. 

 This is so ; they can make the nation strong or 

 weak, they can sell the inner court to the 

 enemy, they are the key to the future of this 

 country in peace and war. Let the public 

 realise that to continue so that " one year bor- 

 rows another year's food " is against the most 

 elementary ideas of nationalism, and also 

 diametrically opposed to the individual and 

 collective well-being of the British people. 



