12 MARCH 1932, Page 17

Country Life

A RURAL CRISIS.

A crisis has-been reached in the battle for the preservation of rural England. It is not only that a Bill for town and regional planning is in debate. The trouble is that those who are most eager to prevent the motor revolution repeating on a wider scale the evils of the industrial revolution have allowed their forces to separate into different camps, not without Homeric battles of words. They are in some danger of destroying the reform they both desire. It is not only in the House of Commons that this collision is apparent ; and it may serve a good purpose to emphasize "distinctions that are plain and few," accepted though perhaps not fully realized on all sides.