Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928 THE PROBLEM OF EMPIRE MIGRATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 12 April 1928, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1928 THE PROBLEM OF EMPIRE MIGRATION

THAT there is .something wrong with Britain's emigration schemes has been evident for some time past. Considerable light was recently thrown on the subject m tin* House ni Commons, -during a debate on Mr Somerville's Hnrpire Settlemelil Bill, the object of which was to amend the Empire Settlement Act of 1922. Tin- mover said :

Something seemed wrong with mi gration. In spile of the mult iplieai.ion of agencies and efforts to encourage it. the emigrants io Canada. Australia, and New Zealand during the years 192.3 2b numbered h-ss than halt of the total lor the years 1911 Id. The fault. li-llailllv did not lie with till' I'lime Minister, who bad made a iin-moiablc loin in Canada, nor with Mr Aim-iv,

who had just i oniJlieted a tour of the whole Empire. lie himself ascribed the disappointing figures to bail Made. V bull illMiilll ageil the mil llov. of cap: tal and therefore of labour: to the in loads mi tin- spiril <> t advent lire made by tlit* elaboration of social insurances at home: to the doubling, since 191‘1. of the cost of unassisted passages; and to Ibe rest lii t ions imposed by Doiniti imi ( liai-i niiu-nl s mil of a natural but. lie ilimiglit, mistaken sensitiveness to ibeir ii .vii economic <lif fi i ■ 11 11 ies.

i’l the mill's' ol the debate it. transpired that, so marked was the lark of interest, iri emigration ,t was found impossible to •[.aid the annual grant of £3.000.000 per annum made under the Act of 1922. Mr Somerville proposed many expedients, the, principal of which was to abolish the Oversea Settlement, Commit lee, and substitute for it a statutory Empire Set-

[lenient Board empower ed t... cariy out the var iou : pi .•'(.•• -.d v. hiidi 1,«- -had made Hi; Wuttjrt :.ud that to- l.ad trade I .ikuiati. u v.tiuh shuv.'t-d that the Unemployed lii p.lit.iih included 575.001) men and 100.(XX) women who were eligthfe tut • -mi.’ralinii, that i-. to ;av ilia! they wotdd comply with tlie

■t a fid.it'd. (.1 i li.itaet, i . tiselulness, and [Jlt li.d tittn-SS Set Uji l>V t tie l told I[l Kill-., at.-.l he . on- alered that it would be better to spend AtS.OCO.OCO interest on bun to settle them in productive employment oversea-, than to spend the same amount te keep them idle in Britain. In speaking ori the Bill Mr Ametv

■aid ..tie i-i two things which threw new light, on the subject of British emigra lion. He said that, it was probable that the full amount- of .{.’3.000.000 per annum, allocated under the Act of 1922, would ultimately be used in connection with overseas schemes, and that, there

would be nothing !o spate for anything .Iso (such as Mr Somerville proposed) fl i .in tin-; source. Ihe DomiUKitiS Sect .- larv also said that during his recent tour he had made certain arrangements with the Australian Government, for submit ting some big migration schemes.

during the next, two months or so. He did riot disclose the nfduro of those schemes, hut it was evident, that, they

i unformed to the principle, which he laid down, namely, that "the Empire was not a dumping ground lor British urn-mploYed, and migration tould not

pros pet until any such idea was dissi rated There l‘i. matter seemed to lest, though tin- Government, allowed the Bill to >go to a second reading, because it was anxious to consider anything which claimed to he conducive, to the batter merit of migration. The London “Times." in commenting upon the debate said, among other thingsTlie Dominions admittedly need an increase, and this country (Britain) a decrease, of population. But for that verv reason, and for the mutual benefit

of ihc two parties, what is wanted is

co-operat ion. In this Dominion, however, the recent term of economic depression so swelled the numbers of unemployed that, immigration ha-; been retarded by the action ot the l !oVf! rnnent. It is granted that, that was a temporaiy measure, but it was riot so much as reterred to during the debate in the Commons, and appears to have been unknown to the ‘‘Times." This seems to indicate positively tho need of co-operation, referred to by the London journal. It remains to be seer, what is the nature of the two comprehensive schemes, spoken of by Mr A muy. and bow far they will meet Ihe obviously unsatisfactory’ position of British emigration. If would seem that what

is wanted is not. the continuation of tho game of cross-purposes which seems to be played by Britain and the Dominions, irt connection with this very important, matter of inter-Empire migration, but the creation of an Imperial Commission, consisting of delegates from the Dominions and Britain, empowered to deal with the problem in all its phases, and to propound some comprehensive scheme, or schemes, of Empire migration, acceptable to all parties concerned