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14
Land Settlement.
The threat of international strife and the state of tension in
the world during the past year or more have tended to turn public
interest and attention almost entirely to questions of defence and
armed force. At the same time it has been realised that part of a
country's defence forces consists of its economic capacity and
ability to produce its own essential requirements. In Great
Britain a question of permanent importance is that of food product-
ion, and special attention is being paid to agricultural problems.
In this connexion valuable experience and help is being
gained from an attempt to solve in part the unemployment problem
through land settlement. During the past four years schemes have
been developed and financed by various public and private bodies
for putting unemployed men back on the land, A Land Settlement
Association, built up in a comparatively short time, has developed
a vast organisation which, on its own particular lines, is the
largest producer of foodstuffs in the British Isles.
In 1938 according to a writer in The Times, when the Associa-
tion's holdings were little more than one-third developed, the
purchases and sales of the marketing department amounted to
£750,000 in value. The output was about 44,000 pigs, 14,000,000
eggs, and over 1,000 tons of tomatoes. When all the estates are
fully developed, the total annual turnover will probably be about
£2,000,000. The purchase of common requisites and the sale of
produce are organised compulsorily on a co-operative basis,
Started to relieve the needs of a number of unemployed workers,
this movement will help to ensure the production of food should
a national emergency arise.