If the War is ever finished, surely one of the first things to be
insisted on afterwards, with regard to England, must be the settlement
of the actual people (not the parasites) on the land. Else how, after
all that they have gone through, can it be expected that they will ever
again "fight for their country"? But that this vast landless population
in the villages and country districts--hungering as it is for some sure
tenure and interest in the soil--should actually, as now, be berated and
scolded by superior persons of the "upper" classes, and threatened with
conscription if it does not "come forward" more readily, is a spectacle
sufficient to gratify the most hardened cynic.

Certainly it is remarkable that such numbers of the great working masses
of this country (including villagers) should come forward in connexion
with the war, and join the standard and the ranks of fighting men--as
they do--and it is a thing for which one must honour them. But in that
matter there are not a few considerations to be kept in mind.

In the first place a large number are not really very enthusiastic, but
simply join because pressure to do so is put upon them by their
"masters." The press-gangs of old exist no longer, but substitutes for
them revive in subtler form. Many large landlords, for instance, have
given notice to a percentage of their gamekeepers, gardeners, park
employees, and the like, to the effect that their services are no
longer required, but that if they enlist in the ranks now they will be
reinstated in their masters' service again when the war is over ("if
still alive" is, we presume, understood). Large numbers of manufacturing
and other firms have notified their workmen and clerks in similar terms.
This means pretty serious economic pressure. A man in the prime of life,
suddenly ousted from his job, and with no prospect either of finding a
similar job elsewhere or of learning any new one, is in a pretty fix.