RIGHT MIGRANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1937, Page 7

RIGHT MIGRANTS.

"VAST OPEN SPACES."

Britain Cannot Spare People For Dominions. FRANK SPEECH IN COMMONS.

LONDON, February 18. There is apparently little pullingpower in the "vast open spaces" of . the Dominions; and if the pullingpower were much greater, there is no large reserve of population in Britain on which the Dominions could draw. This is the conclusion suggested by the very frank speech 011 migratiou delivered by Mr. Malcolm MacDoiiald, Dominions Secretary, in the House of Commons. Mr. Mac Donald quoted and apparently accepted the prophecy that in a few years the population of Britain would begin to decline, while the population of employable people would decline even further. Need for Artisans. The Minister definitely asserted that Britain must consider her own population requirements. As workshops, factories and shipyards became busier, she could spare fewer industrial workers and skilled men. Also, as agriculture revived, there was less need for agriculturists to leave. Moreover, Mr. Mac Donald contended that what the Dominions need is not so much rural workers for the "vast empty spaces" as artisans—the very persons whom Britain cannot spare. He said that if the Dominions were to support large, thriving populations, these would not be employed even mainly by the development of the agriculture and pastoral industry. They would not be employed even by the multiplication of dairy and mixed farms, but only by the development of manufactures. These would require just those workers whom Britain, according to Mr. Mac Donald, is unable to spare. It is exacted that Mr. Mac Donald's speech will be widely quoted in Germany mid Italy, and in other countries which demand room for expansion and argue Jhat they are able to supply colonists. They will read in it a confession that Britain is becoming unable to people her vast overseas territories by migration while pessimists are continually claiming that the rate of population increase of most of the Dominions is very unsatisfactory. Italians for Australia. Sir Robert Young, M.P. (Labour) supplied ammunition for Italy by quoting a letter from Newcastle (New South Wales), alleging that the "only persons doing anything in settlement are Italians, who are taking up land on which thousands of their countrymen settle." One speaker in the Commons debate drew attention to Britain's two million surplus of women. He suggested that they at least might supply migrants. This was Mr. Croom-Johnson (Conservative), who urged that something should be done to promote the migration of women. He cmimed that the modern girl was able to go anywhere, do anything and look after her#elf. Englishwomen could be trusted to do their part, he said, anywhere in the Dominions. Mr. Mac Donald stated that the society for the Migration of British Women was sending out 500 women a year.