A NEW HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 39, 14 August 1926, Page 20

A NEW HOME

FOR THE BRITISH RACE.

Mr. W. Bankes Amery (British Government Eepresentative for Migration) told members of the Millions Club in Sydney recently that he did not think the British point of view in the great problem of migration was properly appreciated in Australia.

There seemed to be an impression, he said, that the money which Britain offered the Dominions for the promotion of immigration was given to create a market for British manufactures. That was not so. In making.the agreefment, Great Britain's.dominant interest was inspired by the long tradition that Britons should be able to roam over the face of the earth and found branches of the mother State in far lands. That was their birthright.

Another impression he had received from the debate in the House of Representatives recently, was that this was a scheme to unload upon Australia Britain's surplus of helpless, hopeless citizens. But that, too, was incorrect, for Britain treated her unemployment as a local problem, and did not wish to force it upon the Dominions.

The great need wai a settled policy, for in migration one could not in a week decide that a hundred thousand people should leave for a land thousands -of miles away. When Australia was ready, Britain would set in motion wheels which would provide her with a steady flow of people. But it did seem terrible that inquirers should bo told, when they went to Australia House, that at the moment there was no room for them—that they might inquiro againin six months' time. He ventured to say that in six months' time they would be neither in Britain nor Australia. Some other land would have captured them.

Yet events during the last year had made Australia exceedingly well known in' Britain, and created a predisposition in. people there to come out. Lord Burnham and his colleagues of tho Empire Press delegation had given most encouraging reports of the country, and Lord Apsley's experiences as a migrant, which he had chronicled in a pamphlet 'that was being distributed throughout Britain, would help people to make up their minds. Even the' visit of the cricketdrs would givo Australia useful publicity. "The rate of migration to Australia can easily be doubled or trebled," said Mr. Amery. '' This is the last great space on the earth in which it is possible to maintain a white British race. Australia has an opportunity which will never occur again in history, to keep for. British ideals and traditions a vast tract of country. I think it is the duty of all Australians to think in terms of Australia one hundred years hence, and to make this great land a home for the British race, more magnificent even than Britain herself."