PROBLEM OF THE REFUGEES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 68, 20 March 1915, Page 4

PROBLEM OF THE REFUGEES.

Th« employment of the Belgian refugees is becoming an increasingly difficult problem within the United Kingj dom. This its not tbe first time that' oppression on the Continent has driven crowds of peaceable workers into 'England, the most memorable'occasions being after the Revocation of the Edict of Xairtes had forced ifche Huguenots to leave France, and again during the French Revolution, and. more recently some ten years ago after the pogroms against the Jews-in Russia. -In earlier centuries there was more than enough space within the country for industrious immigrants, and their arts and industries'added to"-fhe wealth of theijf" adopted oounftry. But within the last hiiti-" dred years the Unilted Kingdom has had to ■ deal with the problem of an.alien population continually reinforced by fresh arrivals, and with their numbers swelled into thousands in times of -disturbance abroad. They not only com,pete with the native-born population, but undersell them, and owing to their ignorance of the language and their helplessness in a foreign country they let themselves be sweated by unscrupulous employers. But making allowance for all theee circumstances, the. case of the Belgian refugees ought not to "be prejudiced by the ordinary objection to the employment of foreigners. The public conscience Tightly vrecogniste that they have an exceptional claim upon the nation, not merely for its pity or dharity, but for Uβ justice. It is not only that they aire the alta of England; it wag their resistance that prevented France from being. overrun and kept (England eecure until it had time to prepare. The British have not been backwa-rd in acknowledging 'iheir debt in speeches and poems, and in the more ! practical shape of donations of money"' and in voluntary service.- But the Belgium Refugees' Committee see objections to the unrestricted competition of those unfortunate foreigners in the i Labour Market. One rule of the Committee is that no employment should be given to the refugees except 1 -through the labour Exchanges. More important than this was the principle that they should not be employed at all except when there was no British 1 abour availa tiie. The reason giyen is that employing Belgians might mean keeping ■British out of employment, and thai they might accept lese wages, and thus tend to lower the general standard' in the trades they entered. It would be scandalous for employers to take. advan 7 tage of the necessities of these unfortunate exiles, who ought rather to be" regarded as the wards of England than aa dependente;iorced_u£on jtockarityr-bat

patriotism cannot be relied upon, even in these times, to prevent the exploitation of labour placed in the helpless ' position now occupied by these unfortunate Belgian workera. There is good reason to hope, however, that a majority oif the efficient workmen will be gradually absorbed without seriously affecting the labour market. Large as their numbers are, they still form only a small fraction of the total industrial population of Britain. "The Xation" reckoned in January that the numbers of male Belgians who had been industrial employees in their own country amounted to about 20.000. while thai, of the whole industrial population in Britain, was eight millions.. Putting this in another form, it would mean one additional employee in every four hundred. It is true that in certain trades and professions the war has thrown numbers out of work, but. on the other hand, ithere haa been an immense increase in the demand for labour in other directions, notably, in the manufacture of arms, ammunition, and clothing, in all of which the Belgians specialise in their own country. An even more important consideration is that the British Army is drawing away from r -he available supply of labour a far greater number of men than the total number of Belgians in the Kingdom—in fajfc, from the middle of October to January a larger number enlisted every week than had come from Belgium during all those months of war. The only alternative to employing the refugees is to support them in idleness. ■If the war lasts for months, or perhaps for a year longer, they would prove more of a burden and a problem in these conditions than when competing with British workers. Before they could return to their -own country they would be more or lees demoralised. This process is said to have already begun in Holland, which has and. provided for a far greater number than England. In th e refugees' .camps in that country thousands of men physically fit arid willing to work have nothing to do but to kill the time, sleeping, smoking, playing cards and quarrelling. It has been suggested that in England workshops should bp set up where Belgians might employ themselves making furniture and clothes for their own use when they return to ttheir own country. But though this mi<rht do very well for a time, it is obvious that they could not nearly all continue turning out clothes and furniture for an indefinite time on a large scale when ther did not know what their future might be. The maioritv of women refugees are beine absorbed in domestic employment, and for the othprs it hae been proposed that ther mfeht set to work making clothing for Belgian soldiers, and taking charge of the refusees' hostels. In one way or another those refueees who can work ought to be drafted into suitable avenues of employment, instead of being maintained by charity.