POST WAR SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 29, 3 February 1916, Page 5

POST WAR SETTLEMENT.

RIDER HAGGARD'S MISSION. ' LAND FOR 2,000,000 SOLDIERS. LONDON, February 2. The Colonial Institute entertained Sir Rider Haggard at luncheon prior to his departure on a tour of the Dominions. Earl Curzon, who presided, said that the settlement of discharged soldiers on the land, concerning which Sir Rider Haggard was to inquire, was one of the most urgent problems. Probably two million soldiers would return to the labour market, which would be congested, and wages would fall. After their open-air life the soldiers would not be likely to return to factories and offices, and would want to settle down to a healthy life on the land, ln Britain, the areas and economic possibilities were restricted, and as they wanted to keep these men as British citizens, they must be guided elsewhere. Sir Rider Haggard said that the Dominions presented nn endless vision of vastness and richness. Anglo-Saxons might fill the world if they availed themselves of these vast territories". After the Boer war there were 250,000 emigrants from Britain, whereof 123,000 went to the United States. Britain wanted to keep every one of her soldiers for the Empire. Tens of thousands of the surplus women of Britain could be spared for the Dominions. They must have cheap cable communication with the Dominions, which was one of the strongest bonds of Empire. He did not intend to interfere with existing schemes. He said that he would probahly write a book upon the Empire and its lands.