NEED FOR POLICY

Evening Post, Issue 56, 7 March 1934, Page 9

NEED FOR POLICY

CO-OPERATION WITH DOMINIONS FAR-BEACHING SCHEME (From "The. Post's". Representative.) LONDON, February 2. In the House of Commons'on the last day of January Sir A. Shirley Benn (C, Sheffield Park) submitted a resolution that the. time had now come when H.M. Government should get into touch with the Governments of the Dominions with a view to putting forward a scheme for the voluntary redistribution of the white* peoples of the Empire and the stimulation of shipping and trade under the flag. ~' Sir H. Page Croft (C, Bournemouth), seconding enthusiastically, said he would like to sco a conference called before long of all the Parliaments in the Empire to examine the ideas which were put forward for Empire development. "We have seen a really remarkable recovery in face of great difficulties," ho added,"but I sometimes wonder whether the Government is not so absorbed with the mighty problems of the moment that it is failing to look five, ten; fifteen, or twenty years ahead. Many of us feel that we should abandon the role of Mr. Micawber and seek the vision of Cecil Rhodes. I do not any party in the State has any fixed ideas as., to what the'policy of the future should be." Sir Henry, then referred to an unofficial committee of members of political parties, peers, and experts, who, he saidy had-been considering the problem during the' past year. They had taken evidence from something like 75 men,' consisting of farmers in the Dominions, explorers, great engineers", and officials in the various parts of the Empire. "And," he added, "the whole of us are convinced that the greatest possibility of the development of our industry and the restoration of the prosperity of the Empire as a whole lay in ithe cordial co-operation.of the various parts of the Empire on largo lines." j SCHEME OUTLINED. ?The committeo believed that tho whole matter of migration should be placed in the hands of a corporation or chartered company, whose future would depend upon the success of the settlers. The corporation would equip the settler, see him established on-suitable soil, and see. him through' until he had harvested his crops, seeing him on the road to owner-occupation. "We ask," proceeded Sir Henry, "that the Dominions should give grants of large areas suitable for settlement aiid-'mixed.' farming. We, want . the Dominions to let us build up entirely new colonies of British settlers in the undeveloped portions of their States and provinces, and in return for the grant of land we propose that Britain, through a corporation, or company of unimpeachable integrity and authority, should give the Dominions, at no cost to themselves, hosts of new. taxpayers and producers and consumers, to the great benefit of both sides. "We propose to move a large population overseas. The v first scheme'eontemplates the removal of 250,000 people within the next ten years. We want to see ; chains of villages populated by people' from the Home laud. We propose that village populations should be.recruited together, trained together, and when.trained, should proceed overseas to the destination which will have been prepared to a certain extent in advance by the company. .We propose to construct railways and roads to link up- these chains of villages, and ultimately to link them up with towns and cities which we believe may arise out of the scheme. TRAINING CENTRES. . ["The whole of the vast material for this great construction work should be provided by Britain 'and the Empire overseas, and this preparatory work in these new centres .should be carried out by British and Dominion workers, probably in equal numbers, while the construction of the training centres here would be carried out by workers in this country. The interest cost on, a first scheme affecting some 40,000 settlers who, with their wives and dependants, would number some 160,000 persons, would not exceed the annual cost of unemployment benefits paid to an equivalent number of workers in this country," ... ~ • .The promoters were asking that some form \of guarantee should be given to a corporation such as he had indicated under the Trade Facilities; Act or somo such means, so that it could borrow on terms that would make the plan a success. He was sure that the State would again gain from the plan lasting economic and financial advantage. (Cheers.) Sir E. Grigg (C, Altrincham) said that a strain had been put upon the export industry of this country by the recent cessation of migration.. "We want migration to be revived by the action of the Government," he added, ."and not for the Government to wait until migration is revived by some other means." (Cheers.) * Mr. Lunn (Soc., Rothwell) declared that it was impossible to ship British people overseas in such a "mass movement" as was embodied in this suggestion. If there was the money they should be settled at Home. "MIGRATION HAS TO START AGAIN." ' Mr. M. MaeDonald (Under Secretary for the. Dominions), replying to the debate, said that the Government acknowledged fhe intrinsic importance of the question. Tho fact that migration had been practically at a standstill for a few years was due to the unemployment problems in the Dominions. .Nobody,would deny.that when conditions became normal again the vast territories of Australia and Canada would not be adequately populated. Those spaces could not be filled by the normal increase of the existing populations, and it was important that the additional increase of the populations should be composed largely of British* people.' • ' '' The migration of puopio from this country," Mr. MaeDonald added, "has to start again, and this Government has to have a migration policy. This is the general attitude of the Government towards this matter." During the lull the Government had not been sitting still and doing nothing. The Dominions Secretary was anxious to get into touch with the Governments ,of the Dominions as quickly as possible. It is not our intention to. make up our minds about policy and to have our minds fixed before we approach the Dominion Governments.. It must be a policy of co-operation with the Dominions, and we have no intention of handing them a cut-and-dried scheme." It would be extremely unfortunate if migration were regarded merely as a means of tackling the unemployment problem. Migration would only be successful when the Dominions were convinced that they were going to benefit from migration. The Government was working as speedily as possible to the point when they could get into discussion with the Dominion Governments on this matter. "The Times" comments on one of the most important but most perplexinc of Empire problems:— B "Whether from the point of view of this country or from that of the Dominions there can be no doubt that' a redistribution of population is an urg-

cut necessity.- Great Britain is overpeopled, while there is not one of the Dominions . which has the population 1 needed to carry its overhead equipment, political, social, and material. "There is another consideration, a danger which few of the Dominions can afford to overlook. As the world shrinks with the steady improvement -,Of communications, and as the economic pressure of expanding population becomes more intense, so it becomes more and more difficult for countries like the Dominions to keep for themselves vast territories capable of maintaining many more millions of people than they carry today. That is a weakness for which immigration on an adequate scale is the only effective remedy. A White Australia policy, for instance, cannot be safe so long as.it implies or seems to imply an empty Australia. During the past few years Empire migration has necessarily been at a standstill. The movement of population has been if anything in tho contrary, direction. ... It is true, of course, that when the- Dominions become prosperous again settlers will make their way out to them of their own accord, at their own expense and at their own risk; and that is by far the best form of migration. But without Government encouragement it will not be enough to give Great Britain the needed relief, or the Dominions the additional man-power and the security which they . require. Undoubtedly there are difficulties in the way. Settlers in these days, especially perhaps Government-aided settlers, seem less willing to face' the privations, the discomforts, and the isolation which were the price paid by the earlier pioneers for their opportunities; and they are probably confirmed in this reluctance by the high standard of living set up in the Dominions by the descendants of those pioneers. And another great difficulty is finance; but it should not be an insuperable difficulty, since, indirectly at all events, a well-organised scheme of migration would bo one of the most profitable investments to which - the Empire Governments could devote their resources. It is high time that the whole subject was taken up afresh. i