POPULATING THE EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 269, 10 August 1938, Page 11

POPULATING THE EMPIRE

Entry Of Non-British Migrants SALVATION ARMY’S POLICY European Statesmen Interested ("Dominion” Special Service: By Airmail.) LONDON, July 23. Should non-British migrants be encouraged to settle in the Dominions? This question was dealt with by General Evangeline Booth in a letter to “The Times,” London, this week. Referring to the proposed recruitment of migrants outside the British Empire, the leader of the Salvation Army, who has just returned from an extensive European tour, writes:

“For many years the Salvation Army conscious of the pressure of population in. many lands, has publicly advocated such a policy and encouraged the Dominions to open their doors in that way. Early last year I authorised our commissioner, David Lamb, to conduct a survey of the prospects for a resumption of Empire migration. On that inquiry Salvation Army officers in the Dominions and Great Britain travelled 25,000 miles and interviewed more than 2000 representative people. '

“Their reports show in the main an intelligent anticipation of one phase of the board’s report, for they found that the conditions ‘such as will foster Lbe free and spontaneous movement of population with the* minimum of Government supervision iu countries’ were then to a larger extent in existence. “It is not clear to me whether the board's proposal is that these migrants from outside the British. Empire should act as a spearhead making plain the way for British settlers to follow, Or whether the first effort of settlement should be directed to the transference of people from these islands, having always in mind the burden of the 2,000,000 unemployed on the homeland community. Absorbed Satisfactorily. “In recent years good types of nonBritish migrants have entered the King's overseas Dominions and have been absorbed satisfactorily, many of them making a definite spiritual and cultural contribution to the Empire. “There surely can be no serious objection to the transplantation of peoples of other races if such movements are regulated, selected, provided for on arrival, and given adequate oversight and after-care. “During my Continental visit, I found many leading statesmen interested in the affairs of the British Empire, and some of them anxious to share in the work of its development. “Our department by which 250,000 people have been happily transplanted overseas in the last 35 years has been kept intact and is capable of easy and quick expansion to meet any requirements of any new policy. If the new exodus is properly directed it may cause future generations to bless the British Commonwealth of Nations.”