END OF THE WAR PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 105, 5 May 1915, Page 2

END OF THE WAR PROBLEM

LORD GREY'S EFFORTS. tPHOM OtIB OWN CORRBBPONBBNT.) LONDON, 16th March. The Royal Colonial Institute is *,o\v concerning itself with the inevitable problem of the employment of ex-Servico men after the war, and it is a problem in which our Oversea Dominions call assist in solving. Directly the war is over the ranks of the unemployed very suddenly may be largely increased, and the meeting of the institute, over which ]jovd Grey presided, passed a resolution requesting the council of the institute to appoint a committee to look into the whole question, and to consider the best steps to be taken with tho view of securing the co-operation of the Imperial and Dominion Governments in a joint 6chemo for settling^ sex-soldiers and sailors, with their families, upon the land. "My own views," said Lord GGreyy y "arc that there should be, if possible, a central registry in London of. the laflds available for settlement in all part« of the Empire, including the United Kingdom, 1 co that ox-eoldiers and sailors should be able to ascertain the conditions on which land might be obtain* able in various parts of the Empire. "If the various self-governing Provinces and States and Dominions would agree to pool their vnluablo land* hi some joint echehie for the benefit of the mer- who have risked their lives for th» Empire, the prospect before us would be less gloomy than it is at present. As to the cost, it would bo infinitesimal compared witK our war expenditure. I Suppose you had 200,000 men out of em • ploymenl who would be glad if they could be assisted in their passages to settle on Dominion lands. At £10 per head it would amount to £2.000,000, and very likely the Dominions would be glad to offer facilities, so that tho amouut might be reduced. But in any case tb would be nothing when we take into account the benefits that would result. "It is probable that there will bo many ex-eoldiers who will not be content, after their experience of open-ah' life, to return to tho humdrum conditione of town life. The question is how to tram them for farm life, either ab Homo or in the Dominions. "Then there is another interesting . point : U has been suggested that an endeavour should be mad© to secure, through the co-operation of the export mental farms, on© of which now exists • m every country, facilities for training e-x-sc-ldicrs in agricultural methods. The Belgian Organisation Society, which wa* established by Sir Richard Paget, made what appeare to mo to be an admirable suggestion : that some of the Belgian agriculturists who have sought refuge in this country should also be attached to these experimental farms, and should bo provided with an opportunity of demon* Btvating, under tho supervision of ey perls, how the methods of intensive cut tivation could be applied to land in England." Lord Grey added that if it is objected that a-ssietbg ex-Service men to the Do* minions would be contrary to our principles regarding '"State-aided" emigration, "let us allow every soldier and sailor after the war to claim his discharge in any part of th© Empire he chooses "