SPARSE POPULATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 6, 8 January 1931, Page 8

SPARSE POPULATION.

TURKEY'S IMMIGRATION PLANS. The question how the deficiency of Turkey's population is to be remedied lias gradually gained outstanding importance in public discussion at Stambpul. Thirteen million and a half people are spread over territory one and a half times as large as France. Even in Stamboul the density of the population is of only 380 to the square mile. In the rest of the country it ranges from five to 103, its average being 46. Under these circumstances all attempts towards progress are handicapped by distance. There are almost no public works which can be expected to be conducted on an approximately paying basis. Railways are unproductive, and there is but little chance of improvement so long as large tracts of land crossed by them remain sparsely inhabited. Economic factors now appear to get the better of the hitherto prevailing political conceptions. For one decade Turkey has been ruled by the idea of security based on the existence of a homogeneous Turkish bulk within Turkey's present limits. The "Djumhuriet," one of the leading dailies, writes that the departure of any individual from Turkey means loss to the country. First of all, it urges, an end should be made to the exodus of Turkish citizens of Jewish faith, who distinguish themselves by their creative intelligence and their productive activity. This, however, means nothing else than the return to the system of minorities, as it is but natural that under the new Turco-Greek relations any advantage granted to Jews would also have to be extended to Greeks. But who are to be the immigrants? asks the Stamboul correspondent of the London "Observer." If Turkey makes up her mind to open her doors to regular immigration, there is no doubt that there would be a large influx of Italian and Hungarian peasants. But here the question arises, whether Turkey would accept such elements, valuable "as they are, but whom it would be impossible to assimilate. Many might prefer Turkish tribes of Turkestan, or even Japanese colonists.