Part of Orders of the Day — Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Bill. – in the House of Commons am ar 9 Gorffennaf 1928.
Mr Archibald Skelton
, Perth
The villain of the piece, according to the right hon. Gentleman, was the Board of Agriculture. He has selected the wrong villain of the piece. If he wanted to find the real villain of the piece in regard to land settlement in Scotland it is the villain upon which the Committee appointed by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland placed their hand—it was the Liberal legislation of 1911 which, in the lowlands where land settlement was its most vital feature, introduced into lowland agriculture practically the crofting system, which every lowland landlord and every lowland farmer knew was as vicious a system of tenure as one could have, because it rests on the principle of dual ownership. I hope that my fears about the Bill are ill-founded, because it would be an ill day if any step taken by a Unionist Government brought nearer by a single inch the possibility of home rule for Scotland.
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