EMIGRATION OF WOMEN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 4

EMIGRATION OF WOMEN.

« PRIVATE AND STATE ORGANISATION. AN EMPIRE PROBLEM. 1 (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. 26th March. The Ear] and. Countess of Ellesmere lent the picture jallery at Bridgwater House, St. James's, on Tuesday, for the annual meeting of the British Women's .Emigration Association, which promotes ft\e protected emigration of women ani clk'ldren. TVe association pledges itsell :—: — To .emigrate only such women and girls as are *>f good character and capacity ; To select only such men and families us are stcitable to the requirements of each coIomjJ"; To secttw. 1 for them proper protection on the voyage, and adequate reception on arrival ; and If possible, jfiot to lose sight of them for a year or frw o after their emigration. NEW ZEALAND WORK. In their report the committee state that their object is the selection" protection, and introduction of suitable women and girls, heakthy, capable, and respectable, lor emigration to the Colonies. During the yeaxs the association has existed, more than *80tX) women and girls have gone out tinker its auspices to the three great dependencies ol the Empire — Canada, Australasia, and South Africa. , The association had been .approached by a firm of boot manufacturers" in New Zealand, well spoken of by tibo High Commissioner, asking if it couJ-fc' send cut some female boot machinists. Negotiations were proceeding, but the^reat distance necessarily involved considerable delay. Seventy-one persons had sailt d to New Zealand in 1908, most of them to situations awaiting them. The report also gives letters from educated women who have accepted situations at .Twyford and Wellington through the agencies of the association. IMPORTANCE OF FEMALE EMIGRATION. The Countess of Ellesmere occupied a seat on the platform, and Lady Knightley of Fawsley, who was hi the chair, stated that Lord Strathcona had written expressing regret at not being able to be present. Lord Milner^ who had been asked to preside, but found it impossible to accept the invitation, as he was going to Egypt, stated that he appreciated the work of the association, and recognised its importance; and the Earl of Crewe, in wishing the meeting every success, wrote in a similar strain. Dr. G. R. Parkin, proposing "That emigration conducted with due regard to the wants of the Empire is an im- j portant contribution toward the solution of the problem of providing employment for industrious women," said that no country had such serious problems tb deal with as the British nation. Most of the Continental nations dealt with the great problems of their life chiefly by Government agencies, but we left a great deal of our most important work to individual effort, individual initiative, and individual organisation In no country in the world had he seen so much unpaid labour given to public questions and public problems- as in England, and he did not hesitate to say that the British Women's Emigration Association was one of those organisations of individual effort, one of those bits of machinery which had been created by private organisation, that seemed to be as perfectly fitted as any he knew ot for dealing with one of the most difficult problems. On the one side we had congested population, vast bodies of people for all of whom there was not work; ,On the other side there were great countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where there was any amount of land and work for the industrious. The question of the distribution of the population in our Empire was perhaps the gravest we could have. Mr. St. Leo Strachey (editor of the Spectator) seconded, and said there was truth in_the suggestion, " No emigration, no Empire." Certainly they could say, "No female emigration, no Empire." They were acting in a patriotic manner in helping on this work, for if the best stamp of women were to be sent to the Colonies, it must be through such agencies as the British Women's Emigration Association. The resolution was carried. In moving the adoption of the report, Mr. Turner (Agent-General for British Columbia) spoke of the demand for domestic help in the province he represented. Lord Ashcombe seconded, and the motion having been adopted, a vote of thanks was passed to Lord and Lady Ellesmere, on the motion of Mr. A. Brodrick.