After this little straight talk the farmers saw the difficult position we were in and expressed the opinion that the attitude taken up by the Federation was wrong. I think I ought to say that none of the farmers present were members of the Federation, but they were the largest farmers in the county and the most influential and were almost able to force the issue. They promised that if the Union's Executive would meet them they would undertake to see that, whatever agreement was arrived at, it was carried out. With this understanding I undertook to use my influence with the Executive to have such a conference held at Fakenham. On my return to Fakenham I informed the General Secretary of what had happened and asked him to get into touch with the President and obtain his views on the matter, which he did, and I think I ought to say that my action was rather severely criticized by some of the Executive. But the President put his foot down and was determined that such a conference should be held. It was arranged to meet the above-named farmers, with Lord Leicester in the chair, and the following were appointed to meet them at the Crown Hotel on Thursday in that week: The President, Mr. W. R. Smith, the vice-president, Mr. George Edwards, the General Secretary, Mr. R. B. Walker, and Mr. G. E. Hewitt. Mr. Smith put our case in such a reasonable and forceful way that it was unanswerable and put in a claim for a 5s. per week increase, bringing the wages up to L1. On receiving our requests and after some little discussion the farmers retired, and after some few minutes they returned and made us the following offer. They would agree to recommend to the farmers a rise of 3s. per week at once if we would undertake to withdraw our notices. We withdrew and discussed the farmers' offer, and after some few minutes' discussion agreed to accept the offer as a compromise, and undertook on our part to withdraw all our notices. At the same time we informed the farmers that we considered we were justly entitled to the 5s. per week rise, but for the sake of peace we accepted the compromise. To-day I rejoice that I was the means of bringing the two sides together and preventing a terrible dispute. It was also opening up a new chapter in the history of the Agricultural Industry, for here was collective bargaining, something that I had been working to obtain for over forty years. Ever since the Federation has met us every year and our readjustments have been made in a most friendly manner, and many differences which would have ended in bitter disputes have been avoided. I do not think either side would like to go back to the old individualistic system of bargaining. At least I hope not.