ABSTRACT
It was not the countryside that presented the nation with its major problems in 1914. For some years rural questions had been relatively low on the national political agenda, except for the simmering disputes over land and taxation. The worst of the agricultural depression of the 1890s was over and there had been a return to some stability. Instead, political attention was focused elsewhere: on Ireland and the Tory rebellion over Ulster; the rise of the suffragette movement; and the growing power of organised labour in strikes and worker unrest. However, with the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 the world changed abruptly; at home a new set of issues brought the countryside to a fresh importance in national affairs.
