WANT TO RETIRE IN N.Z.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21550, 1 November 1944, Page 4

WANT TO RETIRE IN N.Z.

MANY BRITONS IN INDIA (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 1. “I am afraid I have had to tell the thousand or more men who wrote to me in India and their 4000 dependants that our Government has made no proposals to welcome them as settlers in this Dominion. It is a major tragedy.” writes Major Sir Clutha Mackenzie in a letter to the chairman of the Dominion Settlement and Population Association, Mr. A. Leigh Hunt. Sir Clutha Mackenzie, now on leave from India in Auckland, had previously reported a keen desire amoiP British men serving in the armed forces in India. Burma and the Middle Fast to make their homes in New Zealand. In addition, lie had reported that there was a large group of older men with ample incomes who Wanted to retire in New Zealand. .He said he had given the Prime Minister, the lit. Hon. P. Fraser, and Others solid facts about the magnificent sroup—tho best men of Britain, \vith their wives and children, enthusiasm and money—-whom New Zealand might have for the asking if New Zealand would on)v <?lve them a welcome and organise their arrival. After what, he had come to know of Asia, ho had given his views on what must be-the indefensible position of New Zealand in the face of the enormous population pressure that part of the world was bound to exert in ever-increasing tempo indefensible whether in war or before the proposed world court of arbitration. “We are unanimous that _we must have no more wars,” continued Sir Clutha Mackenzie, “and to get rid of war we must gel rid of its cause. No single factor will do more to net us into future trouble than the emptiness of our country, and world opinion will have little sympathy with us. Shortsightedness and selfishness will bring our white man’s paradise- to an early end. We shall be turned out of our little Carden of Eden.”