The So-called National Trust
Now the National Trust has a very pleasing title, but it is a misleading one. The Trust .is not national in any real sense. It endeavours to save for the nation places and buildings that the nation would like to treasure, but it receives no national support to this end. It is unendowed. It depends on private benefactions and very few of its pos- ' sessions return any income. Such a body cannot go on refusing to accept what everyone wants it to own, and which it was created to own. I suppose the most highly advanced' Communist would shake hands with the most deeply en- grooved Tory over the desirability of the sort of land nationali- sation that the Trust involves. The more it owns the better ; but individual subscribers are never likely to prove suffi- ciently generous to endow the Trust worthily ; and it will miss half at least of a golden opportunity if it is not enriched. The case for a national grant is overwhelming. A grant even of £10,000 a year would double its present efficiency ; and there are signs that more and more people would leave or give land and buildings into its charge, if they knew that the desirable gift would be accepted.
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