EMPIRE’S EMPTY SPACES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 September 1924, Page 8

EMPIRE’S EMPTY SPACES

TOO LITTLE NE\\ r BLOOD

ATTRACTIONS OF U.S.A

LONDON, Sept, 1. •‘The tragedy of migration,” says the London Times in a leading article, “is the number of skilled workers lost to the Empire through sailing to America. No fewer than 14,000 embarked in .1923, representing a- sevenfold increase in two years. Unfortunately, no amount of propaganda will counter the temptation of higher wages, but as far as agricultural labour is concerned there is abundant evidence of awakening consciousness of the Dominions to the possibilities of the Empire Settlement Act. For the first time in Australian history there appears the probability of the six States advancing together 1 , instead of pulling against one another. “The Dominion authorities at AAremb. ley make encouraging migration reports; but the wealth of the Empire does not begin and end upon its farm land, and the lesson of the Exhibition will be lost if the best workers are allowed, in ever-increasing numbers, to go elsewhere- than to their own kinsmen overseas.

“Alore than two years have passed since the Empire Settlement Act became law, and its best friends will not claim that it has worked any miracles. The two years have been years of promise and experiment rather than achievement. The Dominions have been too preoccupied with their own domestic difficulties to give attention to the question, which sooner or later must become the greatest problem common to them all, apart from the financial burdens of the war. The most serious handicaps to the development of the Dominions’ territories have been their unemployment crises. It did not need a noisy protest to ensure a ea-cann.v policy in the importation of fresh labour.”

The Times suggests that co-ordina-tion is needed between the many excellent migration . organisations, and also closer and permanent co-operation between English and Dominion Government officials.