IMMIGRATION SCHEME CRITICISED

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14710, 30 June 1948, Page 6

IMMIGRATION SCHEME CRITICISED

POPULATE FOR 'PEACE Admission Of Asiatics Suggested Whakamarama Resident’s Views ‘•We boast no colour bar; then admit some of India’s millions and some of China’s intelligent and highly-cultured people.” This is the remedy to the immigration problem put forward by Mr George Odoy in a letter to the Bay of Plenty Times. He advocates that they,“ along with young men and women from the war ravaged countries of the Baltic, be allowed to come to New Zealand, in thousands, and that all suitable unoccupied lands bo thrown open for settlement free for varying numbers of years. Mr Odey contends there would be work for all and in our increased numbers there would be some margin of safety. “That eleven hundred million Asiatics can be forever held in their own countries is a futile thought. The day may not be far distant when this coloured flood will sweep southward seeking room to live, and there will be no love for the whites.” A population of several millions and an army of well trained well armed men supplied by our own munitions factories and ready to take the field at a moment’s notice is the precaution suggested to allow a few more years of peace and comfort. Mr Odey says it has already been written that the brown flood will engulf us and to toy with immigration and with the training of our youth is little short of criminal negligence. He thinks ihat viewed from all angles, the present rate of immigration into this country is totallv inadeemate and, although it must “be admitted that transport is a serious problem, every avenue must be explored and immigration should not be confined to people from the United Kingdom.