Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Ex-Service Men. – in the House of Commons at on 6 December 1920.
Lieut-Colonel Leo Amery
, Birmingham Sparkbrook
The Canadian Soldier Settlement Acts make provision for settling qualified Canadian ex-service men upon the land in Canada. The settlement is carried out under the supervision and guidance of the Soldier Settlement Board, and loans sufficient for the purpose of settlement are made by the Board. Qualified soldiers are required to pay 10 per cent. of the purchase price of their farm, and the total maximum loans allowed may not exceed $7,500. The privileges conferred by the Act are extended to approved ex-service men from the United Kingdom, but all such men are required to deposit £200 as a guarantee, i.e., approximately the equivalent of 20 per cent, of the purchase price of their land, stock and equipment. Applications by ex-service men from the United Kingdom can in future only be made in Canada at one of the offices of the Soldier Settlement Board. The possibility of making arrangements with the Canadian Government and the Governments of other Dominions for a wider extension to British ex-service men of the privileges given to their own ex-service men, is certainly worthy of consideration, but involves questions of cost which would have to be carefully gone into.