214 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



colonies for soldiers it will be sound to organize colonies for other 

 classes of settlers. In so far as forced and artificial methods of settle- 

 ment are uneconomic and injurious to ordinary settlers they will 

 prove injurious to returned soldiers, even if schemes are subsidized 

 with government money. In the interests of the whole country we 

 have to get down to the root problem in connection with land develop- 

 ment, and get rid of the idea that no matter how we may carve out 

 the land and ignore its proper planning we may afterwards succeed 

 by expenditure of money and time in making sound rural conditions. 

 In so far as the returned soldiers question can be linked up with 

 the land question it will not be entirely an agricultural problem. 

 It is not so important that we should persuade soldiers to go on the 

 land as it is that we should persuade them to take up the most pro- 

 ductive enterprise to which their skill can be adapted. It is not so 

 important that we should keep them out of the cities and towns as it 

 is that we should prevent them from drifting into the ranks of unskilled 

 labour in either town or country. 



Establishment of New Towns for Returned Soldiers 



When all the soldiers who want to go on the land and all those 

 who will take up their own occupations are provided for there must 

 be a great many for whom some sort of organization will be needed to 

 secure that they will devote themselves to productive work. On this 

 point the soldiers will probably have something to say themselves, 

 and will demand that the provision that is made for them will be satis- 

 factory to themselves and the country. As Mr. Neville Chamber- 

 lain, Director of National Service of England, has said, they will 

 want a greater share in the distribution of wealth, regularity of em- 

 ployment and improved conditions both in the factories and homes. 

 The real problem will be to fit ex-service men into some field of labour 

 where they can produce most and also where they can find congenial 

 environment. 



In view of the large number of men who have a taste for indus- 

 trial pursuits, who have learned discipline and precision, who have 

 seen the advantages of co-operation and social intercourse, it will be 

 essential for some step to be taken to organize the development of 

 new towns or to assist in the extension of existing towns where such 

 men can be provided for. Even those who will want to take up farm- 

 ing will prefer to do so in close proximity to an existing city or town 

 where intensive culture is practicable and better social facilities can 

 be obtained. The success which has been achieved at Letch worth in 

 England, in the building up of a city and agricultural colony combined, 



