NEW LAND WITHOUT WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIX, 31 January 1936, Page 7

NEW LAND WITHOUT WAR

VAST RECLAMATION IN HOLLAND Tho reclamation of the Zuider Zee is a vast extension of a policy which, in Holland, has been undergoing trial for many hundreds of years, writes Captain F. McDermott. In the past, the natural expansion of the population of any small but vigorous country has usually been provided for by the annexation of other land sparsely populated by an alien people, and this nearly always implied bloodshed. But the trend of modern thought seems to condemn expansion which involves warfare as a preliminary. Consequently any attempt, such as that being made upon the Zuider Zee, to deal with this problem by more pacific means, is naturally watched throughout the civilised world with a great deal of interest. There is, so I have been informed by the Dutch Government experts, little possibility of the scheme being a financial success from the Government’s point of view. Bui to any criticism on that score their reply is;—“Surely it is better to expend the national purse on even casual employment which will produce concrete advantages in the future, rather than on doles, which are nothing but a temporary relief measure with no future advantages, (o say nothing of present disadvantages.’’ Moreover, the sum of £80,000,000, which the scheme is estimated, at the old normal rate of exchange, to cost, will circulate almost entirely in Holland, and thus prove of great benefit to Dutch trade. It is hoped that 300,000 people will find permanent employment on the reclaimed land, and this number will be augmented by casual labour in tbc busy seasons.