‘But,’ I asked, ’won’t this limitation of credit prevent the men with less than five acres from borrowing more to buy more land and getting on in the world?’

‘Yes,’ was the answer, ’of course it will.  That’s just what we want to prevent.  Half these fellows ruin themselves trying to buy more land.  We’ve got to protect them against themselves.’

That, alas! is the one enemy against which no law can protect any son of Adam; since the real reasons that make or break a man are too absurd or too obscene to be reached from outside.  Then I cast about in other quarters to discover what the cultivator was going to do about it.

‘Oh, him?’ said one of my many informants. ’He’s all right.  There are about six ways of evading the Act that, I know of.  The fellah probably knows another six.  He has been trained to look after himself since the days of Rameses.  He can forge land-transfers for one thing; borrow land enough to make his holding more than five acres for as long as it takes to register a loan; get money from his own women (yes, that’s one result of modern progress in this land!) or go back to his old friend the Greek at 30 per cent.’

’Then the Greek will sell him up, and that will be against the law, won’t it?’ I said.

’Don’t you worry about the Greek.  He can get through any law ever made if there’s five piastres on the other side of it.’

’Maybe; but was the Agricultural Bank selling the cultivators up too much?’

’Not in the least.  The number of small holdings is on the increase, if anything.  Most cultivators won’t pay a loan until you point a judgment-summons at their head.  They think that shows they’re men of consequence.  This swells the number of judgment-summonses issued, but it doesn’t mean a land-sale for each summons.  Another fact is that in real life some men don’t get on as well as others.  Either they don’t farm well enough, or they take to hashish, or go crazy about a girl and borrow money for her, or—­er—­something of that kind, and they are sold up.  You may have noticed that.’

‘I have.  And meantime, what is the fellah doing?’

’Meantime, the fellah has misread the Act—­as usual.  He thinks it’s retrospective, and that he needn’t pay past debts.  They may make trouble, but I fancy your Bank will keep quiet.’

’Keep quiet!  With the bottom knocked out of two-thirds of its business and—­and my five hundred pounds involved!’

’Is that your trouble?  I don’t think your shares will rise in a hurry; but if you want some fun, go and talk to the French about it,’

This seemed as good a way as any of getting a little interest.  The Frenchman that I went to spoke with a certain knowledge of finance and politics and the natural malice of a logical race against an illogical horde.

‘Yes,’ he said.  ’The idea of limiting credit under these circumstances is absurd.  But that is not all.  People are not frightened, business is not upset by one absurd idea, but by the possibilities of more,’