NOTES AND COMMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 305, 6 October 1938, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

% GREAT POWERS AND LEAGUE. Britain would be making a profound error if, in such questions as colonial settlement or the extension of German trade into the Danubian and Balkan countries, she were to pursue a path of near-antagonism on account of dislike and distrust of ,tha Nazi regime, said Viscount Samuel, addressing the Liberal summer school at Oxford. “Germany is liable to attacks of claustrophobia,” said Lord Samuel. “That is a dangerous position.” In considering the position of the League they must remember, he added, that of the seven Great Powers, only three were members. The seven Oslo States weie determined “never to take part in any conflict between the Great Powers.” Recently nine of the countries of Southern and Central America had withdrawn from the League. “In these circumstances,” added Lord Samuel, “the campaign of Mr Churchill that we should form a defensive alliance against a possible aggression of the dictatorships and rally the smaller countries in its support, seems to have little relation to the situation.”

ALIEN STOCKS IN AUSTRALIA. The white population of Australia is so largely British or Irish by descent that is it disquieting to think that it may not always be so, remarks the “Spectator.’’ But the present tendency is distinctly otherwise. In the year ended on June 30 last the combined figures show that there was a net gain of 6769 aliens. The bulk of them came (rather unexpectedly) from the Italian and Balkan peninsulas—including 2896 Italians, 1078 Greeks, and 331 Albanians. The only category likely to cover exiled Jews was that of the 6/1 Germans. A definite attempt is now on foot to increase month by month the flow of British immigrants. The Australians themselves prefer British, and the best inducement to Britons to emigrate is evidence that a Dominion wants them, but no doubt economic forces favour immigrants with a lower standard of life. Hardworking Italian peasants make good settlers, and they are better able to stand the heat in latitudes like those of Queensland and Western Australia.