MIGRATION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20550, 19 May 1932, Page 14

MIGRATION.

PROBLEM OF TOWN-BRED UNEMPLOYED. BRITISH NEWSPAPER'S COMMENT. I The possibility of the problem of emigration being usefully discussed at the Ottawa Conference was referred to ; us follows by tlio Manchester "Daily Dispatch" of March 31st:— Of late the whole subject of emigration has fallen into the background. This is not surprising despite the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of able-bodied young men and women in this country unable to find jobs at home. There are two reasons for the lack or interest. Practically every Dominion and . colony presents a lukewarm attitude to emigrants; and very few wouldbe emigrants present themselves in this country. In other words, there is little demand and little supply. If the Ottawa Conference can clarify the situation, well and good, but no amount of theoretical discussion on emigration will serve to populate the empty spaces which abound throughout the Empire, or to stimulate the unemployed youth of Great Britain to seek work aild wages overseas. 1 The problem is one of great perplexity. Many of the Dominions'have their own unemployed. That is one* of the anomalies of an age full of such strange situations. The generation of to-day is not a pioneering generation in the development of the "great open spaces." Education and civilisation as a whole have produced a town-bred type, industrial and clerical in the mass; certainly not agricultural. It is no use sending clerks and mechanics, mill and steel-workers to Canada, Australia, Kenya, or New Zealand. There are no openings for them at their trades, and they are totally unfitted to clear land and raise crop and stock. A New Outlook? The practical problem to be solved is to meet the need for settlers. How- can that be done? Where can it be done? v/hen can it be done? It is not merely a matter of training; if it were,- a solution would be forthcoming m the next four or five years. It is a matter of crafting a new outlook on rising generation. To-day there is no enthusiasm for "going foreign." The lure of tho city is too strong. The romance of the prairie, the plantation, the railch is nothing ■ more than a - celluloid romance manufactured at Hollywood. It docs not emanate from the soul of young England. It is a sad confession for a nation of Empire builders to'have to make, but we believe it to be the true state of affairs. Whether it can be remedied we do not profess'to be able to say. Perhaps the discussion in the House of Lords next month will bring enlightenment.