FARM IN SCOTLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20003, 31 July 1939, Page 6

FARM IN SCOTLAND

GIFT TO LABOUR MEMBER PEERESS’ OFFER ACCEPTED LONDON. June 20. As the outcome of remarks in the House of Commons, Lady Astor, Conservative M.P., ■offered, and Mr. D. Kirkwood, Labour M.P., accepted, a 60-acre farm on the island of Jura, Scotland. Mr. Kirkwood, a Scottish member, had asked whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, was aware that one-sixth of Scotland was given in returns as deer forest and that 100,000 acres had been withdrawn from cultivation since 1920. He suggested a tax on deer forests in order to enforce cultivation. Sir John declined the tax suggestion, stating that deer forest areas were 8000 acres less in 1938 than in 1920. Lady Ast'or: We will give Mr. Kirkwood a farm in a deer forest if he will promise to make a living on it. •Mr. Davidson (Labour): Who is “we”? Lady Astor: Me. .Mr, Kirkwood said he accepted, on condition that he would not have to cultivate the land personally. Lady Astor agreed to allow him to employ a manager on the farm, which is understood to 'be barren land.

Lady A’stor is the .American-born wife of Lord Astor, himself of American descent. She was the first woman M.P. in Britain, and has sat continuously for a Plymouth constituency for 20 years. Their English country home is Cliveden, overlooking the Thames in Buckinghamshire.