On Friday, July 16th, the Minister of Agriculture moved the
Second Reading, which was carried without a Division, of a new Small Holdings Bill. It is not an ambitious Bill, and we shall not expect it to change the face of the countryside. But it is on the right lines. It gives opportunities, and that is a function that we do not grudge to Governments. It extends the opportunities in the direction of ownership, and we desire to see small ownership extended. It lays the responsibility for carry- ing out the operation of the Bill on the already overbur- dened backs of the Comity Councils, but that is better than centralization in Whitehall. Profiting by the lessons of the Act of 1919 and the loss to the taxpayer of eight million pounds over the ex-Service Men's small holdings, Colonel Guinness said that the Treasury would only bear seventy-five per cent. of the losses incurred. The County Councils must be encouraged to administer the scheme carefully by bearing responsibility for twenty-five per cent.
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