I listened carefully to the right hon. Gentleman, and I have looked again at the Bill, but that is my impression, and it is the impression of the National Farmers' Union. Their interpretation of this part of the Bill is that arbitrators may increase the rent by as much as 30s. to 40s. an acre. That is the view of many farmers, but I am glad to accept the Minister's assurance that that will not be so. It will, at least, calm their fears about the effect on the market in the Midlands of people coming from the cities, with all the money that is floating about there.

The Minister earlier said, quite complacently—and he has, of course, repeated it—that there will be little danger in these words "scarcity value." Speaking on Tuesday, 4th March, to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Minister said: There need be no fear whatever that arbitrators will be influenced by absurdly high offers which are sometimes made in the open market by inexperienced or hobby farmers. No sensible or prudent landlord would willingly let his farm at a fancy rent to an unreliable tenant of this character; that would be only asking for trouble. The man need not be unreliable. He can be a farmer who is badly wanting the land, and will offer the money in the open market. All this competition each year for a diminishing number of farms by increasing numbers of applicants is pushing up the value of the land, and the farmers fear as much as I do that this is a danger. They feel, as I do, that the existing set-up has worked perfectly well for some years, and that there is no need to alter it.

I want to say a few words about amalgamation. The words of Clause 3 (1, b) are: … that the carrying out thereof is desirable in the interests of sound management of the land to which the notice relates … It is possible to amalgamate smaller portions with a larger farm or to take two farms together. One is glad to see the word "sound" in there. It is quite possible that one could have amalgamations, and I beg the Minister to be careful about how he looks at that matter. There is a natural flight from the land to the towns, to begin with; we are losing our farm workers, and we wish to lose fewer in the future. It may be that farmers can be squeezed out under the terms of this Clause.

I want the Minister to look not so much at the economic implications of the Clause but at the social and cultural ones. If this sort of thing were to go on to any large extent, we should lose a number of good people, people of good stock and stature in our countryside. We are already losing the leaders from our local councils, and we are losing village school population. We are losing far too many people from our countryside. I hope that what happens under this Clause will not accentuate the tendency for people to leave the countryside.

I am not one who believes in larger and larger farms for the sake of sheer size. Mechanisation, of course, means the lessening of work, fewer workers, and, possibly, more efficiency; but I do not want to see "factory farms" brought about by amalgamations under the Clause. Basically, I believe, man is a peasant. I do not want too many people to leave the countryside for the towns. Living in towns tends to make some people rather like "spivs". It is much more natural to live in the countryside. One finds in the country, especially among tenant farmers, people of more independence. They are an asset, and among them are leaders in our village life. Anything which tended to drive them to the towns would be bad. I know that the Minister earlier referred to the proviso which would, he said, guard against abuse. He quoted the words in the proviso to Clause 3 (2), and said that a fair and reasonable landlord would not insist upon possession in all cases. There is a safeguard there, but I beg him to watch the matter carefully.

There has, in the past, been a tendency in speeches on both sides of the House to accentuate the antagonism between town and country. We do not want too many speeches about farmers' subsidies being too great, about farmers being this and that. Our job is to cement town and country together, not to emphasise what has in the past been the malaise of antagonism between town and country dweller. The townsman wants his food cheap, and some of us feel that, perhaps, this Government, in their search for cheap food to please the townsman, is going a little too far in Measures such as this. Our job is to hold them together, not to widen the gap. I have no wish to make any speeches about feather-bedding, as some of my Friends have done. I do not believe that farmers are feather-bedded at all.

It is entirely foolish to talk about £290 million worth of subsidies for farmers. A lot of that goes on behalf of my wife and the wives of hon. Members when they go shopping. Let us keep the thing in perspective. When the farmers do a good job, let us say so. Let us be honest. The figure is not £290 million; it may be less than £100 million. It is difficult to sort out; but, at least, let us do our best to be helpful in this matter and not attack farmers needlessly. Let us endeavour to keep the country, so to speak, at one with the town.

I spoke a moment ago about the Government searching for sources of cheap food. We have seen the dumping of butter in the United Kingdom, and New Zealanders complaining. Farmers here are very worried now lest the Government, in their search for cheap food to keep down the cost of living, and, consequently, of course, to lessen taxation, in their wish to make economies, should desert the farmer. Deserting the farmer means deserting the farm worker. It means deserting the villages and our countryside. I do not wish to see too many people coming to the towns. We are being Americanised enough as it is in our towns and cities; we do not want too many people to come to an atmosphere of juke boxes, Coca-cola, and the like. Village life has much more strength and independence and is a much more natural life, giving birth to typical British fibre. When hon. Members opposite talk about the British way of life, they are really talking about the way of life which has its origin in our countryside.

I wonder whether the Government really wish to preserve the countryside, in their desire to have cheap food in order to cut taxes for electoral advantage. Are they willing to jettison the countryside as the Government were in the 'twenties and 'thirties? I suspect that they are. Farmers, who have traditionally been the supporters of the party opposite, are moving away now; they certainly are in my county. My earlier quotations gave damning evidence of how they feel about the behaviour of the party opposite. I believe that the Government are willing to jettison the countryside. They have been and still are a Government of "gimmicks". They are hoping to hang on for another twelve months or so until 1959.