The

1
The land question and emigration

• What was the land question/problem in the
  Highlands of Scotland?

2
The land question in the Highlands was about land
ownership.

• Without ownership, the crofters of the Highlands
  had faced eviction for many years.

3
The Crofters Act of 1886 put an end to the
Highland Clearances by granting security of
tenure to the crofters.
4
That meant that crofters could not be evicted
from land they rented on the sudden whim of the
landowner.
5
That security meant that crofters could build
substantial permanent houses on their land.

• However, the Act failed to restore the lost land
  from which the crofters and their ancestors had
  been forcibly evicted over the previous century.

6
The failure of the Crofters Act to restore the
former crofting townships to the crofters
resulted in the continuation of poverty and
overcrowding in the crofting communities.
7
It also meant a continuation of protest by the
landless families for land in the former crofting
townships.

• By 1914 vast areas of land claimed by the
  landless crofters were used for sheep farms, deer
  and grouse moors/shooting.

8
Why did the land question become a problem again
after the Great war?

• When the war ended many soldiers from the
  Highlands and Islands returned home with the firm
  belief that they had been promised land as a
  reward for fighting for their country.
• Propaganda, recruitment statements and speeches
  had made a firm link between Highland men and
  their land, and some large landowners did make
  promises of gifts of land from their own estates
  to men who had joined up to fight.

9
When the land the ex-soldiers expected was not
given to them fast enough, many took the law into
their own hands and began land raids.
10
What were land raids?

• Land raids had been used in the 19th century when
  tempers ran high over the issue of clearances and
  absentee landlords exploiting the Highlands while
  the crofters starved.
• Land raids usually involved a number of men
  marching onto the land they believed they should
  have a right to work on.
• Some claimed an old law stated that if they could
  build a wooden shelter and a hearth on which they
  could have fire then they had a right to the land.

11
Did the Land Settlement Act of 1919 solve the
problem?

• The Land Settlement (Scotland) Act stated that
  land would be made available for men who had
  served in the war-but where would that land come
  from?
• For the Land Settlement Act to be successful the
  government would have to purchase land from the
  previous owners, but very soon it became clear
  the government could not afford to do so.

12
Land raids continued and the government were in a
difficult position.

• It would be very expensive to meet the demands
  of all the ex-service men to punish the land
  raiders would be very unpopular to do nothing
  about land raiders would undermine the authority
  of the government.

13
To make matters worse, an official government
report from the Board of Agriculture said that
seizures of land would increase

• If the governments promises were not kept.
• By the end of the 1920s the problem of land
  ownership, overcrowding and poverty had still not
  been resolved in the Highlands.
• Many of the local people saw emigration as the
  only escape.

14
Was emigration a serious problem for Scotland in
the 1920s?

• In the inter-war period Scotland had the highest
  rate of emigration of any European country.
• In the 1920s emigration from Scotland became a
  flood. It was said at the time that Scotland was
  being emptied of its population, its spirit, its
  wealth and its talent.
• The 1920s saw an out migration from Scotland
  higher than at any other time in Scotlands
  history.

15
Many Scots saw emigration as an escape from a
Scotland locked in unemployment and decline.
16
Did the Empire Settlement Act of 1922 boost
emigration?

• The Empire Settlement Act of 1922 provided for
  the first large- scale government -assisted
  migration programme.
• It was intended to boost the rural population of
  Canada and other parts of the British Empire.

17
Subsidies were paid to emigrants who agreed to
work the land for a certain amount of time.
18
Emigration affected not only the Highlands.

• Lowland Scotland also saw emigration of large
  numbers of skilled and talented labour.
• In the 1920s three out of ten migrants to New
  Zealand came from Scotland and the migrants were
  not only from the Highlands but also from the
  depressed industrial areas of central Scotland.

19
Emigration was also increased by the deliberate
actions of the Canadian government in advertising
their country

• By the 1920s full time resident agents
  encouraging emigration to Canada had offices in
  Glasgow and Inverness.