EMPIRE’S FATE

Evening Star, Issue 20995, 8 January 1932, Page 10

EMPIRE’S FATE

CAUSES OF TROUBLE CENTRAL OVERCROWDING With characteristic courage Dean Inge has been pointing out that the causes of decay which brought about tho decline of Rome are now visible in tho British Umpire, and this warning, though unpleasant, well deserves serious thought, writes Harold Cox, in the ‘ Sunday Times.’ As an illustration of the tendencies now visible in England, which were also visible in Rome, it is interesting to turn to one of the minor works of Tacitus, the ‘ Dialogue on Oratory.’ Here is a sentence which, except for details, might be written of London to-day;— “ Again there arc the peculiar and characteristic vices of this metropolis of ours —the passion for play-actors and the mania for gladiatorial shows and horse racing; and when the mind is engrossed in such occupations, what room if left over for higher pursuits? How few are to be found whoso home talk runs to any other subjects than these?” It is some consolation, however, to note that though this was written by Tacitus about A.n. 84 the Roman Empire continued to flourish for several centuries. Probably, indeed, in every great town at every period of history a large number of people take more pleasure in public entertainments than in serious thought. EMIGRATION CEASING.

The peculiar troubles of the British Empire with which Dean Inge dealt in his speech at Bangor on the ‘ Fate of Empires ’ are mainly economic. He specially referred to the bad distribution of population, throughout the Empire. Tho importance of this matter can hardly be exaggerated. Owing to the development of manufacturing industries the population of England has increased in the past hundred and fifty years at a rate previously unparalleled throughout the centuries. The result is that, judged by almost any test, our country is now seriously over-populated, while the rest of the Empire is, relatively speaking, empty. London alone contains almost as many people as the whole of Canada, and considerably more than the whole of Australia. What makes the situation worse is that emigration is now practically ceasing. Indeed, recent figures indicate that there are actually more people returning from the dominions than there are emigrants to the dominions. The Canadian Government is closing down some of its emigration offices in England on the ground that there is no business for them. To some extent this decline in emigration to the dominions may he fairly attributed to the Jack of the spirit of enterprise which was characteristic of our race in previous generations. Men who find that they can get almost as much out of the dole as they could earn by working are not likely to risk their fortunes by emigrating. At the same time the attitude of the dominions towards immigration makes the situation worse. CLOSED DOORS. Practically all the dominions are tending to close their doors against British immigrants. Worse still, Canada is now engaged in sending back to England migrants whom the Canadian authorities regard as undesirable. This happens not only to recent arrivals, but also to old residents in Canada if their health fails. A case was reported in the ‘ Sunday Times ’ a year ago of a Lancashire girl who had lived seventeen years in Canada with her parents. She was sent back to Lancashire on the ground that she was a chronic epileptic. On similar grounds another Lancashire woman, about the same period, was deported from Canada after she had lived there for twenty years. This is surely not quite playing the game between one part of the Empire and another. In the case of Australia the opposition to British immigration is mainly traceable to trade union action. The Australians, though they are anxious to build up urban industries and are willing that British capital should be imported for that pufpose, are resolutely opposed to tiie simultaneous importation of British labour. Yet in that direction lies on©‘‘ of the most hopeful chances of transferring population from over-crowded England to almost empty Australia. If British manufacturers were allowed to transfer their employees as well as their capital and machinery to Australia there would be a chance of a big movement of population, and Australia would certainly gain; but the trade unions prevent this being done. The idea of the Australian trade unionists is to keep all the jobs for themselves, and the final result of their action is to prevent the development of the country, so that there are fewer jobs for them to do. FEWER BUT FITTER. One must admit, however, that even if we could greatly extend the emigration movement, there is very little reason for hoping that it would sufficiently reduce the _ excessive population of Great Britain. Yet this must be done if Ave are to prevent our country from moving downwards instead of upwards. At the present time the less efficient elements in the population are increasing much more rapidly than the more efficient. To a large extent doubtless this is due to lack of prudence on the part of the more ignorant classes, but the trouble is distinctly aggravated by the dole. Happily, the growth of population is less rapid than it was a few years ago, for tho practice of birth control is slowly spreading to the poorer classes, and statisticians have been calculating that Avithin fifteen to twenty years’ time the population of England will become stationary. But a bigger movement than this is needed if we are to overcome the difficulties now facing us. We cannot hope to find employment for all our present population. Other countries are noAV doing for themselves much of the Avork which avo used to do for them, and Are are losing the markets on which we have to depend for our national life. Until our population begins actually to decline there is very little hope of getting rid of our present grave troubles. If England is to retain her Imperial and international position, she needs a much smaller population, with a higher proportion of skilled people.