I EMPTY SPACES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1936, Page 8

I EMPTY SPACES

EMPIRI^ MIGRATION

COMMERCE AND DEFENCE

NEED FOR BALANCE

The need,: for a better balance of population the Empire in the interest of both commerce and defence was/tstressed by delegates to the fourteenth,^ Congress of the Chambers of Commence of the British Empire yesterday ai flernoon when the debate on a remit urging organised immigration ■was continued. One delegate reierred tja the actions of a European statesmftm who secured colonies by force o/£ arms, and the president of the Federated Chambers (Viscount Elibarik) entered the debate to say that the question of defence within the Empire was an important feature of the suggested migration programme.

Mr.;si. S. Leatherby (Plymouth) said that |h/e came' from the city of Plymouth/ and represented the fishermen ther'i./ Delegates had talked of the AlWft/id Route the day before, but tiherie' would never have been an AllRed /floute if the fishermen of England had i, not left their nets to go further afjeljii. They had supplied the sailors Vhej had made the establishment of tnej, Empire possible, but today they wdije up against it, and if the-Domin-ion^ could find work for them they wfcruld pay a debt to those who had nfg'ide life in the Dominions possible.

'/"'Don't forget," he said, "that we have a) neighbour in Eurrpe who has a special way of making colonies. He Makes them at the point of the bayopet." The excuse of that man for his (method, he added, was that he must 3have room for his countrymen to exjpand, but he could not make that expcuse in relation to the Dominions if the daughters of Great Britain opened their arms to the best type of man that Britain could send to the colonies. POPULATION A DEFENCE. Mr. A. G. Lunn (Auckland) also referred to the needs of defence, and said New Zealanders should realise that New Zealand was only a part of the Empire and was dependent on other parts. If Britain suffered from overpopulation New Zealand must suffer also, and it was to the advantage of the Dominion to see that the population'of the Empire was properly spread. Population was the best armamfent they could have, and New Zealand certainly needed population. The best place to get the people needed was Britain, and if New Zealand could get trained craftsmen work would be available for. them. It had been said that community settlement would not succeed, but the prosperous district of Dannevirke had been largely settled by Danes, arid he believed that settlements where immigrants could be associated with the friends they had known in Britain would make for contented settlers. New Zealand might have to look beyond Britain for immigrants, Mr. Lunn continued, and New Zealand had found in the past that good, settlers could be secured from Europe. He believed there was room for many more settlers in New Zealand, and expressed the view that many farmers were hampered by trying to farm too much land. Mr. P. Hannah (Townsville) also referred to the advantage of population as a factor in defence and said that more citizens would .mean. more consumers and a better, regulation of the consumption of products. Scandinavians in particular, he said, were a type of settler that the Dominion should be prepared to welcome. Sir Lewis Lougher (Cardiff) said it was obvious that the Congress was in favour of a migration scheme and it should be undertaken at once. There was no time for delay. He was a member of the County Council of Glamorgan, and for the three years ended 1933 they had spent nearly £2,000,000 in outdoor relief of unemployment—an average of 44,000 persons in a population of ,750,000. That showed that immigrants were available and the Glamorgan County Council had done all it could to train the unemployed men- in its area. , The county had secured a. farm and had several hundred selected trainees on it. They had also spent £500,000 to secure land to make small holdingsforunemployed men and those placed on the land were making a success of agriculture. If those men could be sent to the Dominions they would make very suitable settlers. INDUSTRIES NEEDED. Mr. W. R. Fee (Auckland) said that if New Zealand was to remain a primary producing country she did'not need more population' but' he' was satisfied that more population was needed and that industries-should be established to give employment to the hundreds' of thousands of people who' were needed. Mr. G. D. Virtue ■' (Perth) asked if they were taking a long enough ■ view.; They were all agreed that population was needed, but it might %c possible that Great Britain could not supply migrants as fast as they were needed. He agreed that industries should be developed to make work for new setMr. W. Mansfield (London) said that at root the question of •immigration was an economic one. If they wished to populate the Dominions they should use attraction-, rather than population. They did not want selected immigrants who were sent willy nilly to relieve' unemployment in Britain, but those who wanted to make a home overseas. If immigration were made more attractive there would be no difficulty about getting suitable people. Mr. G. Groom (Innisfail) said he came from a district that had assimilated many foreigners, but one of the greatest problems of Australia today was the Italian colony in Northern Queensland. Those colonists had celebrated the conquest of Abyssinia under the Italian flag and he was satisfied that foreign immigrants should be scattered throughout the country or; they would lead to foreign colonies within the British colonies. . CommUrial settlements had succeeded in Australia' and what foreigners had done there could be done even'better by Britons. There'was no part of the Empire that needed development more than Northern, Queensland and the people there would -welcome an organised immigration scheme. ■ The resolution was tlien put /and carried tinanimously. < ' :