THE EMPLOYMENT OF EX-OFFICERS. [To THE EDITOR CT THE "
SPECTATOR.")
Si,—Whell in Suffolk the other day I was called on by an ex- naval officer who begged me to buy an ingenious device—care- fully described on a leaflet which he gave me—for turning over, when blown upon, the leaves of music-books. Certain ex-officers were helping in the production of this instrument, I was told, and would be benefited indirectly by the sales.
Now at a time when so much work needs to he done and there is 60 little eagerness to do it one cannot bet regret that the energies of educated and intelligent men should be taken up in producing trivialities. This I pointed out to my visitor, fur- ther explaining that, in my view, there is a very large opening for men of this sort to own and work tractors on the land. Si, strongly do I feel about this that I have lately converted a large house, in the village where we were talking, into three small ones in the hope that three ex-officers might be found with sufficient capital to form a small syndicate and sufficient mechanical skill to run and repair the tractors thentselvea, paying me a reasonable rent for the houses and for a motor yarit and shed adjoining. Unfortunately my scheme has fallen still.. born, for having mentioned it to the Country Gentlemen's Ass». ciation at Letchworth, which is warmly interested in the em- ployment question, I find that ex-officers are either unable or unwilling to put down the amount of capital required—say X500 apiece. The conclusion of the matter would seem to be that ex-officers who want employment will have to get it aa wage-earners, the opening*, for men other than manual workers or capitalists— the possession of .£500 constituting a capitalist—being few and far between. Unfortunately most ex-officere seem unable to realize this, and so we have endless advertisements offering their services as land agents, &c., &e., the advertisers forgetting, apparently, that owing to the break-up of estates the number of land agents required grows smaller every day while the landowners who are left are so much impoverished that they can only efford to engage the most experienoed and up-to-date
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