SMALL HOLDINGS, ISLAND OF LEWIS. (Hansard, 30 March 1920)

§ Mr. NEIL MACLEAN

I have to apologise to the Secretary for Scotland for bringing him down at this late hour, but the message I have received from Scotland during the last few hours is of sufficient importance to justify me in asking him to come down and give an explanation to the House, or to make some statement with regard to matters which affect a large number of crofters in Lewis. Several questions have been addressed to the Secretary for Scotland regarding what has been termed "land seizing" in the island of Lewis, which land has been bought, since the War broke out, by Lord Leverhulme, who, evidently, intends that it should be used for various purposes in the way of business. The men who have seized the land in Lewis are all men who have been born and reared in the Island. The great majority of them have taken part in the late War. Very many of them have won decorations for bravery. They were recruited with the cry that they were fighting for their country. They went to the War to fight for their country, but when they returned they found that the land for which they had fought, the land upon which they had lived, the land on which they had been born, had been bought by a successful English soap-boiler in the meantime, and they had become aliens from their own island.

They had been promised before the War broke out two farms—or, at least, one farm had been scheduled by the Board of Agriculture for making small holdings for these men in the Island of Lewis—but when War broke out the scheme had to be abandoned, and when these men returned there was no land available for them, not even the land of the farm that had been scheduled. On Wednes- 1221 day, 24th March, the Secretary for Scotland, in answer to a question, practically admitted the facts that I have stated. He said: The Board had laid before the Land Court a scheme under the Landholders' Act, but owing to the War proceedings were sisted. Applications have been made for holdings, as stated by my hon. Friend, and are at present before the Board. As my hon Friend is aware, the purchase of the Lews by Lord Leverhulme and the developments contemplated by him have made a change in the situation of which it has been necessary to take account."—[OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th March, 1920; col. 404, vol. 127.] He goes on to state that he is still in communication with Lord Leverhulme. 1222 Those negotiations must have broken through, because the information I have this afternoon received by telegraph is to the effect that the crofters in the Island of Lewis who have seized the land have been summoned to appear before the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday for breach of interdict.