“BATTLE” EVICTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 175, 6 May 1944, Page 6

“BATTLE” EVICTION.

AREA IN NORTH OF SCOTLAND. GLASGOW. Some 1100 inhabitants of a small area in the north of Scotland have had to endure the hardships of evacuation because the district is to be used as a battle training ground. # In the area now involved over 40 farmers and the entire population of one village, where many of them have lived in the same house for upwards of 60 or 70 years, have had to leave at short notice. There has been practically no grumbling over this enforced evacuation, which has been taken as one of the hard chances of the war. But, among the farmers particularly, there is a feeling that they have not had a fair deal and that they are still entitled to some consideration from the Government.

The evacuation has; now been completed, and, with official assistance, all the dispossessed tenants have found new temporary homes, but the farmers are now wondering what to do with themselves. They have been thrown out of production, and no plan seems to have been devised to ensure that their skill, and that of their farm servants, will still be available for the essential task of food production. There are no farms available for them, and most of them will apparently have t<a live on their capital or accumulated savings until they can return to the scene of their former activities. Most of the farmers have suffered serious financial loss as a result of the enforced sale, out of season, of their live-stock and implements, and even if they do get their farms back again after the war is over they will have to face the problem of buying fresh stock at prices considerably higher than they were able to obtain for the sale of their present stock.