1 MARCH 1946, Page 13

SIR, — The article by Mr. G. A. Squires called "The Landless

Labourer" is wholly admirable. To my mind what is most necessary in the English countryside is to create a ladder for the farm labourer by which he will be given a chance to rise. Under present conditions it seems to be an incontestable fact that "once a farm labourer always a farm labourer." It is no doubt impossible at this time to undo directly the monstrous wrong of the Enclosures by which seven million acres were stolen from the English people and the decay begun of English rural life. But there is all the more reason to make an effort to give the farm labourer once

more a stake in the land.—Yours faithfully, ALGERNON B. DALE. Ivon House. Broad Chalks, Wilts.