Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1935. EMPIRE MIGRATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 296, 27 September 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1935. EMPIRE MIGRATION.

Though the foreboding predictions regarding the future of the Dominions expressed at the conference at New-

castle present a picture in over-dark colours it cannot be denied that they deal with a subject of vital importence to the Empire as a whole.. The conference opened with the adoption of a series of resolutions urging organised migration, adequately financed. In support of the resolutions it was affirmed by several speakers that the lack of population in various Dominions constituted a menace in that they invited invasion. Presumably armed invasion was meant, but infiltration by peaceable process is more to be feared than hostile attack. So far as Britain is concerned the migration of many of her people would relieve the unemployment problem to a considerable extent. In this respect the Earl of Mansfield said: “The last thing in our minds is to ask the Dominions to take a burden we are unable to bear. It is a mistake to imagine that a majority of the settlers would consist of unemployed. There would be an equal proportion of those who were employed.” That may be regarded as a factor from the British point of view, but the Dominions, while ready to co-operate with the Motherland in her progress toward established prosperity, cannot accept that statement as smoothing the way to any large extent, The position of new airivals in the Dominions would be the same whether they had left employment at Home or been out of work for a long period, the class described as unemployable being necessarily out of court. The great need of the Dominions is population of the type suitable by reason of personal characteristics and training for colonial conditions and occupations. Of the necessity for increasing the populations of the Dominions, particularly Australia and New Zealand, there can be no doubt. In this dominion, with a falling birthrate and an actual loss on the migration balance, a stage of almost stationary population has been reached. It is necessary that if the natural increase is not adequate the lack must be made up by migration. Foreign settlers of a good type are not debarred; but the Dominions, to fulfil their rightful destiny, should be peopled by the descendants of British stock. By leaving large spaces unsettled and undeveloped we are prompting a foreign influx. The problem is how best to direct a now of British migrants so that they may be quickly absorbed, with a minimum of unsettlement to themselves and a maximum of benefit to their adopted country. But, as the Prime Minister points out, the time for resuming the policy of assisted immigration has not yet arrived. The dominion must settle its own problem of unemployment before the door is opened to further migrants.