OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 24 March 1921, Page 2

OVERSEAS SETTLEMENT

SECRET OeT)UR future LONDON, February 2. ‘Tn the solution of the question uf overseas settlement lies the secret of our future as a nation and an Empire,” was I,!ie sentiment expressed by Lieut.-Colonel 1/ S. Amerv at- a dinner of dm Appointments and Civil Liabilities Hepartnunt of the Ministry c! Labour. The war had destroyed Europe as the dominant centre of wealth and power in the world, he said; it would never again be the centre of trade. )i we, were left in ourselves a.s a little island we could not feed our people or bear the burden of maintaining ti/e Empire. But we wore not a little island; we were an Empire; and the possibilities of the Empire had scarcely been touched. It was in the development of the Empire, which essentially involved the distribution of its manpower, that we should find tho secret both of employment for our people and of defence. It was most dangerous to suppose that' overseas settlement was a roady-mado euro for unemployment. There was not now unlimited scope in the Dominions lor the unemployed, more particularly the industrial unemployed. Nevertheless, in a very substantial measure the moving out of some of the population to the Dominions a .ml colonines would 1 assist in easing the - unemployment] situation here So long as emigration consisted of the right classes of people, it would strengthen the industrial situation here. Hut it must nob be loft to chance. The steps taken must lie taken in co-operation with the Dominion Governments, and must avoid any suggestion of dumping the unemployable anywhere.—Dress.