THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1936. Britain’s Declining Population

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 292, 10 December 1936, Page 6

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1936. Britain’s Declining Population

In thirty years the number of mothers in Great Britain will be only two-thirds of that to-day, according to an estimate given to the conference of the National Association of Insurance Committees at Bournemouth. Mr. W. M. Marshall, secretary of the Scottish Association, said that the trend of population had reached such a point as to be not merely disquieting, but positively alarming. “Nothing you can do can alter the fact that within a comparatively short time the population must inevitably fall, he added. “The number of births in England and Wales has fallen by a third in a single generation. The birth-rate to-day shows that, thirty years from now, there will be only two-thirds of the mothers there are to-day, so that unless the average size of the family were to double, or something like that—a possibility that is so remote as to be inconceivable —it is inevitable that the population must decline “Even if we assume no further decline in the size of the average family, the female babies born to-day will give birth in thirty years to only 355,000 children compared with 580,000 to-day and 948,000 thirty years ago. There should be no delay in formulating a national policy to cover every possible gap—and there arc many—in the scheme of health services. The problem to be faced is the problem of a declining population—a population that is not in satisfactory health.”

Anglo-Japanese Relations

In the last 15 years there had been many changes, but the cordial friendship between Great Britain and Japan remained unchanged, said the Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Shigeru Yoshida, speaking at a dinner given in his honour in London. In Britain they were all looking forward to welcoming Prince and Princess Chichibu to the Coronation next year in the confident expectation that their visit would make still stronger the bonds between the two reigning families. The secret of modern diplomacy was mutual understanding. Great Britain and Japan had each their own needs and difficulties and their respective interests to protect.

In the present topsy-turvy condition of world economics the interests of the two countries might at times appear to conflict, but he believed there was no problem which could not be settled if tackled with goodwill and sympathy. There was no reason v.hy the two peoples should not continue to be as good friends as they were in their social and intellectual relations. They must mutually endeavour to remove those obstacles which stood in the way of friendship, and above all to cultivate more generous criticisms of each other.