Lord Carrington's version of the sale of the Duke of
Bed- ford's Thorney Estate, given in the Lords on November 24th, was subjected to a very damaging analysis in Monday's Times by Mr. R. E. Prothero, the agent of the Bedford estates. It appears that the Duke, after declining highly advantageous offers in 1902 and 1907 because they were believed to be made on behalf of land speculators, decided to sell early in 1909, and informed his tenants, offering to help them to purchase their holdings. The tenants petitioned the Duke not to sell, offering to have their rents raised on a.new valuation, but were informed that the Duke's decision was final. Lord Carrington then intervened, and at his request the Duke consented to give-the Crown the first offer. But Lord .Oarrington,,heing confronted with the difficulty that in order to get his interest
he would have to raise the rents, actually proposed that the Duke himiielf should raise the rents at September, 1909, to the sum 'required to make the purchase profitable to the Crown. "The Duke, in fact, was to play the money-grabber in order that the President of the Board of Agriculture might play the benefactor. In the interests of his tenants the Duke consented to be the scapegoat and raise the rents. But Mr. Prothero told Lord Carrington that at Lady Day, 1910, the Duke would return to his tenants the amounts by which the rents were to be raised."
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