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WARNING TO WELSH FARMERS.

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Rhannu

WARNING TO WELSH FARMERS. Vote-Catching Dodges. TO THE EDITQR.. Sir,To those who have the genuine wel- fare of the Welsh farmer at heart no passages in the election address of a Tory candidate have more Interest than those which touch upon land. For the most part they are simply echoes of what Mr Balfour said at Birmingham in September, 1909. The election addresses, however, are being supplemented by a "syndica-ted article" from a correspondent," which is appearing in some of the Conserva- tive papers in Sonth Wales. Mr J. W. Jones-Cremlyn, who is going to the poll against Mr Lloyd Morgan, uses language which is even stronger than that of the syn- dicated article. If millions." so runs a sentence in his address to the electors, if millions can be safely lent to rebellious Irish- men, surely you have the right to demand the same terms for loyal. God-fearing ^Vales.?' The writer of the Tory land article does not call Mr Lloyd George a rebel, neither does he like to be outdone in local colour by Mr Jones- Cremlyn. The Socialist plan of our Welsh Chancellor would mean, if it were carried out, ruin at no distant date to hundreds of free- hold farmers. This would be a bitter reward, indeed, to many an honest and industrious Welsh Nonconformist freeholder, who had been taught to. look upon Mr IJoyd George as a Welsh national hero." The question which will at once occur to the Welsh farmer is. "Where have these good friends been all this time 1" They seem terribly anxious to do something for him since the election came into view. The Welsh farmer has passed through periods of trial and suffer- ing. What H«fp Did the Tories Give P To go no further back than 1885, Lord Salis- bury was in power from 1886 to 1892. Waa there a word said from the Government bench about helping the farmer in Wales ? These Tory candidates who are now talking glibly about God-fearing Wales." and Tory writers who have such a-tender spot, for the honest and industrious Welsh Nonconformist free- holder," are recommended to look up the record of the-Salisbury Government of 1886— 1892. They will find that on the 29th of June, 1888, Mr Tom Ellis, M.P. for Merioneth, moved: That having regard to the special circum- stances of Wales and the prevailing agricul- tural depression and their effect upon the Welsh people, this House is of opinion that her Majesty's Government should pay imme- diate attention to the subject, and take steps to provide a measure of relief which shall secure fairer conditions of tenure and a re- adjustment of rent, more equitably corres- ponding to the fall in prices, and make such wM^enable the cultiva- Tom Kllis, of course, was beaten,.as he was handsomely beaten four years later when he brought ill his Land Tenure Bill for Wales, which was backed by Mr Lloyd George and • Sir S. T. Evans. It is too much to expect that the people who are now on their knees for the ^Welsh-farmer's vote should know anything i about the heroic struggles on behalf of the •'Welsh tenant as far back as 1892. The country had a Tory Government in 'power from 1895 to 1905--a lease of ten years. A great dealc-ouddbe doneby the-Conservatives for the farmer during that time. They passed an Irish Land Purchase Act, they established County Councits in Ireland, they introduced Chinese labour into South Africa—but there was no mention of the farmer. It is true that Mr Jesse Collings talked much aodoften during his loug career of three acres and a cow," with the net result, as Mr William Jones put it, that w, did not get aaqnnch as A calf." Now over against this clean sheet of the Tories must be set the Record of the Uberari Government. During Mr Gladstone's«econd Ministry the AgriculfcuraJ Holdings Act-of 1883 becamedaw. Mr Jones-CremiyB and others who are eager,to pose as friends of the farmer should read the story of XS83 in its relation to agriculture. For tberfirst time-Parliament was made to stand by the tenant in insisting that, whether he liked it or not. the landlord most pay compensation for certain s)'ecificd'improvements..As,soOn as they got back, not only to office, but to power in 1906 the Liberals again returned to the assistance of the farmer, whom the Tories had totally neglected for al) the years they were in command. The 1906 Act. went a great deal further than that of 1883 indeed, by 1908 it had been so improved as to amount to a Tenant's Chanter." Through the watchful- )ness of the Liberals, and in spite of the bitter opposition of the Tories, every farmer in Wales is now protected from the unreasonable de- mands of an unreasonable landlord. It is safe to assume, therefore, that all the glowing promises of Tory candidates to farmers are L. Simply Vote-catching Dodges, and they are thrown oat because they think that a farmer can easily be fooled, especially if *the appeal is peppered wtih pious phrases, > which sound so out of place in Tory proclama- tions. The modern farmer is no fool, but it is right tbat he should be warned about the new land scheme which the Tories have invented as an alternative policy to the Small Holdings Act. "No more will come of their scheme than of the three acres and a cow cry—still it may Succeed in its one aim of catchng some votes. The plan, in a word, is to float the peasant proprietor with borrowed capital. Sir Gilbert Parker—the writer of most excellent fiction— has"told us all about it. Ownership is a very pretty term, but the Conservative leaders have had no leisure yet to define exactly what they mean. Mr T. W. Jones-Cremlyn merely says vote for Tariff Reform and peasant owner- ship Sir Gilbert Parker is of opinion that 11 the State might purchase the land and re- sell- it to the intending owner," while the writer of the syndicated article tells us that Mr Balfour thinks that it would be a very good' thing for the country for more farmers to own their farms, as farmers do in Germany and France." As to France an aeutc observer, in the report of the Assistant Commissioner on Agriculture marked C 3375, attributed the backward condition of the national husbandry to the demon of property' which induced men to invest their savings in land instead of de- voting them to the improvement of.its hus- bandry." The Assistant Commissioner also says that in Belgium—the land of small holders—the percentage of pauperism in 1881 exceeded that of any other European country. If a money-less Welsh farmer wants to h«mg> a-mill-stone round his neck, if he wants his hair to be turned grey before its time-the thort road for all that is the new-fangled Unionist policy of land reioftm/' The plain duty of the Welsh tenant is to turn a deaf ear to all tfcat a Tory platform has to say about land and to re- 1 main true to the party which has already given him so much and will yet see that he gets security of tenure and fair rent fixed by a court of law.—I a.m, Ac., of law. -I am, &(- GWILYM DAVIES, M.A. Carmarthen.

SACKVILLE PEERA BE CASE.

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