EMPIRE DEFENCE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21732, 14 March 1936, Page 12

EMPIRE DEFENCE

AUSTRALIA'S. SHARE

MR HUGHES'S PREDICTION

(FBOM OUH OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, March 4. Defence is a major news item with the Australian newspapers in these days of unrest not only in Europe but also in the Far East. It is a subject that is constantly engaging the attention of the Federal Government and of high departmental officials. It is known that the Government is in practically continuous communication with the British Government and is prepared to shoulder its , responsibilities in the Empire scheme of expanded armaments. Mr W. M. Hughes, Australia's wartime Prime Minister, and now once more reinstated in the Federal Cabinet, is often the Cabinet spokesman in awakening the Australian public conscience on the subject of defence. In a speech a few days ago urging a strengthening of Australia's defences, he said that nobody could guarantee the continuance of peace for even six | months. Australians would; be thrown j out of their country in less than 20 years unless they were prepared to do something to defend themselves. "It may be that we will somehow or other bump over the bar into still waters, but the omens are dark and menacing," said Mr Hughes. "Australians are heirs to the greatest estate that has fallen to the lot of a British people in any part of the world. They have declared that they intend to keep their fertile island continent 'white.' That they intend to keep it free is evident from the fact that during the war 60,000 men died for that obbject. In the world to-day population is so unevenly distributed that some people lack elbow-room, and some have lands that are hardly occupied. Europe is seething with unrest, and in other parts of the world there are - lessons written in fire for anybody who can see for himself. Australians must defend their country for themselves. Britain is feverishly striving to rearm. Her hands are full. Her enemy is not a stone's throw from her do6r." Need for Population Then Mr Hughes got on his favourite subject—Australia's need for a greater population as an essential to a greater security. The population of Australia comprised between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 of the most virile people in "'the world, he said. It was comparable with the population of England in Elizabethan times. What would have happened if Drake, instead of going out to meet the Spanisfi Armada, had gone to his favourite inn and said: "It can't bs done?" The popoulation of Australia has increased by 544,000 in the five years 1911-15, and by only 240,000 in the last five years. That represented a loss of population five times as great as that suffered by Australia in the greatest war in history The birthrate could not be allowed to go down, unless Australians wished to commit national suicide. Doctrines were being preached by people who were traitors to Australia. He was referring to the distribution of literatue that was responsible for damping down the birth-rate. It was necessary to create conditions in Australia that would make it a country worth coming to. Migrants came from Britain to Australia to better themselves. It was a coincidence that on the very day that Mr Hughes made this speech the new Commonwealth Year Book was issued, with a remarkably interesting array of. population statistics including some dealing with the effect pf the falling birthrate on the number of young lives in the population. A comparison is made of the experience between Jfoe censuses of JLffi&.wd

1933, with that between the censuses ,6f 1911 and 1921. Whereas during the earlier period of 10 years the population under 10 years of age in Australia. increased by 217,085 persong,.in the subsequent 12 years the increment to the numbers in this age group was only 381. Had the average effective birthrate which prevailed between the censuses of 1911 and 1921 continued until June 30, 1933, there would have been about 350,000 more children less than 10 years of age in Australia than were actually enumerated at the. census. , Another interesting fact is that since 1927 the “masculinity of the Australian people—that is, the number of males to each 100 females of the population—has been gradually falling. The "masculinity’’, of Australia in 1934 was 102.2; in other words, there were 2.92 more males a 100 than females. Victoria, with 98.19, was the only state with a masculinity of less than 100. Of 24 countries named in .the Year Book, Argentina had the highest masculinity with 114.1. Canada, Hew Zealand, the Irish Free State,, South Africa, and Australia; came next; in that order. These countries, with the United States and Japan, were the only ones in which the number of males was greater than : that of females. ■ ■ • ■