EX-SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 121, 19 November 1917, Page 2

EX-SOLDIERS

PROBLEM OF SETTLEMENT

REPORT OF IMPERIAL COMMITTEE

The Secretary of State for the Colonies recently appointed an Empire Settlement Committee to enquire into and report upon the question of emigration, with special reference to "the measures to be taken for settling within the Empire ex-soldiers who may desire to emigrate after the war" and "to make recommendations as to the steps which should be taken by His .Majesty's Government in concert with the Governments of thS States and. Dominions for the constitution of a Central Authority to supervise and assist such emigration." This committee, which was under the presidency of Lord Tennyson, ex-Governor-General of Australia, and included the High Commissioners and Agents-General for fee Dominions and States, together with representatives of the Board of Agriculture, Ministry of Labour, Local Government Board, Colonial Office, and the War Office, recently brought up its rerjort.

in the course of its investigations the committee was greatly struck by the profound change which' has taken" place recently in the attitude of the people of Great Britain towards emigration. The report states:—

"Not long ago emigration wae regarded as more or less a necessary evil, which, during times of strefs resulting from unemployment, was tolerated as a national convenience. Small account was taken of the fact that to it was largely due the ri6e of those Dominions and colonies which to-day constitute the British Empire. If a subject of the Crown chose to leave, these shores it was a matter of comparative unconcern to the Home Government whether he settled elsewhere under the flag or in some foreign country. As a result, millions of men of British birth or parentage have become citizens of other lands. Only within the last few years have the problems of population began to be studied in the light of Imperial necessities. Since the outbreak of war, from every part of the Empire the children or grandchildren of those whose enterprise or needs causd them to leave the United Kingdom in past years have- rallied to the support of the Empire in this day of decision and struggle for existence. They liave risked their fortunes with those of the Mother Country. They have shed their blood with her blood. They have shown that though seas separate the Empire.- arid, in son>: respects, the interests of one part may differ.from those of another, it is still one and indivisible; that together we stand or together we fall. In short, it has come to be understood that the man or woman who leaves Britain is not lost to the Empire, but had gone to be its stay and strength in other Britains overseas. The only risk of losing such a one is when the new home is shadowed by some other flag." " Holding the opinion that "it is in the interests of the Oversea Dominions that the Empire should not be weakened at the heart, and that the Mother Country should continue to provide the stock from which future citizens should be drawn," the Committee felt'it its duty to emphasise this point, and therefore proceeded to set cut the plans—unfortunately, few in number—for ihe employment and settlement of ex-Service men on the land in England arid Wales. The report then proceeds to deal in detail with the opportunities for employment and land settlement in the Dominions, not only for ex-Service men, but also for the enormous number of women now ciii ployed in posts held by men before the war, and who will be* displaced to a large extent by men after the war.

"Here," says the report, "the arguments in favour of female emigration as the essential foundation of all effective Empire settlement, come in with full force." The committee does not think that the emigration of *x-Service men after the war should be in any way divorced from the general question of emigration. In its opinion,, the sooner ex-Service men, after the war, are absorbed into the general life of the various parts of the Empire, the better it will be. .Except, therefore, in so far as machinery is necessary to enable ex-Service men to obtain information as to, and to take advantage of, the special facilities offered them in the oversea Dominions, they should be treated in the same way as other members of the community desiring to emigrate. Finally, the committee expresses itself in general agreement yiith the Dominions Royal Commission that a central authority should be set up which would absorb the present Emigrants' Information Office. The Royal Commission recommended that the central authority should be a Department of the Home Government, with a consultative board on which the Dominions should be represented, in order to secure the necessary co-operation between the Home and Oversea Governments in emigration matters.