Damming the Zuyder Zee
The Dutch are past-masters in the art of wresting land from the sea. But the enclosure of the Zuydcr Zee by a twenty-mile dam, which was completed last Saturday, Marks the beginning of their most ambitious scheme of land reclamation. It will restore to Holland a long-lost area of 550,000 acres, larger than many an English county. The project, as daring as it is wise, was sanctioned in 1918, and has been actively pursued since 1926, partly to provide employment, but mainly to enlarge by a tenth the agricultural land on the produce of which Holland largely depends for her sustenance and her export trade. It is estimated that the scheme will cost over £50,000,000, a third of which will be a net financial loss. But when we remember the far greater sums expended here in unem- ployment relief, for which we have nothing to show, we cannot but think that the Dutch, in adopting this Zuyder Zee project, have shown wisdom. There is plenty of drowned land in England that might be reclaimed.
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