Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1936. NECESSITY OR CHOICE?

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1936, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1936. NECESSITY OR CHOICE?

The immigration quesLion is in an uncomfortable position between two stools. Justification is offered for its state of suspended animation by assuming that immigrants cannot be invited to New Zealand while there are unemployed; yet on the day when unemployed here cease to exist, British emigrants may have ceased to exist also. There is no guarantee whatever that there will be a period between the disappearance of the last sustenance man in New Zealand, and the disappearance of a surplus in the British birth and death rates, when New Zealand will be able to draw heavily on Britain for suitable immigrants. The period of unemployment in New Zealand, and the period when Britain will have no population to give away, may overlap; therefore the immigration policy of waiting "till the time is ripe" may prove to be a policy of no immigration whatever. Anyone who sincerely desires immigration will try to secure it now, not at some future time the economic and political circumstances of which are unpredictable, or predictable only in ihe unpromising terms of statistical forecasts of declining British populations. Immigration in our time, and not in the sweet by and by, is the aim of Mr. M. G. C. McCaul, as expressed to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce last evening. He has logic on his side, but whether "political possibilities" are on his side is another question. And, under the democratic system, it is political possibilities that count. Democrats cannot decide on migration policies or on self-suffi-ciency policies in the way that Fascists, or Nazis decide on them. Democrats have to secure a majority —in country, in caucus, in Cabinet —before they can get tilings done; and cold logic is not the deciding factor in securing a majority for a special purpose (such as immigration) in a Parliament elected on no special immigration mandate, but on a number of mandates, more or less vague. The democratic Parliamentary machine is full of "no-decision" possibilities. Even if the members of Cabinet were themselves convinced that New Zealand's export economy (criticised by the last Tariff Commission) must be modified, that New Zealanders must consume internally a greater proportion of the produce of their lands, and that this consuming population can be recruited only by immigration—even if Cabinet members were of that personal opinion, they still would weigh "political possibilities," including the trade union attitude. If Mr. Nash can make an agreement with the British Government based solely on the exchange of goods, the immigration quesLion may be left where it is. But if Mr. Nash were to find that the export of people as well as goods enters into the matter —if he were to find that a wider agreement, embodying the export not only of British goods but of British capital, and the provision of Empire defence, were obtainable in return for an understanding on immigration—then a new phase of political activity in a moribund question would arise. The loan debt is not New Zealand's only debt to Britain. There is a great debt, never yet calculated in money, for the cost of Empire defence, and for New Zealand's benefits therefrom over and above her own defence contributions. On balance. New Zealand owes Britain a great debt for protection from conquest. New Zealand cannot repudiate it because it does not exist in the form of a debt. It is merely a fact, and cannot be written off. If Britain were to say to the Dominions: "We do not want you to pay your whole share of Empire defence, but we do ask you, as part of the local defence which you assume, to build up your manpower"—what would the Dominions say? What would New Zealand say? Britain, of course, may not! deem it wise to say any such thing. But, if she did, would not she be entirely within her obvious rights? This is a factor that has not asserted itself in Dominion "political possibilities," but which might suddenly obtrude. So long as Britain is. not only willing, but also able, to defend almost empty or halfempty Dominions, the people of the latter may rest under the impression that their own local inclinations are decisive, and that, locally speaking, it is not "politically possible" to build up man-power by immigration. But if, in wartime. Empire communications were severed, and if the Dominions were to receive the real scare that did not reach them in the Great War when Eastern nations were our allies, then suddenly the vision of local politicians might be widened. A new view of "political possibilities" would then arise. New Zealand would realise some political needs, in the way of defence, not hitherto glimpsed. 'Instead of asking ourselves whether it

pays us lo invite men from Britain while we may, our choice presently may be man-power or conquest. To imagine that New Zealand stands in an impregnable position, from which this country can dictate its own population standards without regard to the factor of foreign earth-hunger, is to ignore the most dangerous of all political possibilities, and is to bask in a fool's paradise.