Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JULY 5, 1943 ARE MIGRANTS KNOCKING ON OUR DOOR?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 5 July 1943, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail MONDAY, JULY 5, 1943 ARE MIGRANTS KNOCKING ON OUR DOOR?

AMONG excuses advanced fur not doing anything regarding migration is the one about insufficient suitable settlers being available. This argument is sometimes used by specialists in their own field, such as economists and others, as well as by politicians seeking an escape from action. It is pointed out that Britain nas two million fewer children to-day than in 1914; United States has three million fewer than it had 10 years ago; and no western country contains a surplus of people. The conclusion drawn is that Dominions like Australia and New Zealand will be unable to fill their empty spaces by taking people from these countries because there will be few to take. The answer to those objections is to prepare the channels through which a redistribution of western peoples of good stock can flow, let it be known that the Dominions will welcome them after the war, make the passage easy and attractive and watch what happens.

Migration is an empirical processNo one knows for certain what futures have been mapped out by the millions of young men and women now bearing arms or otherwise engaged in the crusade for world security and decency, but we have accumulating evidence that many are turning their eyes away from Europe to the newer lands overseas. In some cases the psychology of escape is operating; in others it is the quest for a new life in a new world in which they hope to better their station much as our pioneers did a century ago. New Zealand and Australia have also come much more fully into the eye of the world through the exploits of their fighting men. The number of eager enquirers at overseas offices of the Dominions gives some indication of intention but only ail incomplete one because no Dominion has yet found it possible to return a positive answer to them. Private persons too who go abroad and show any public interest in migration have often found themselves receiving sheaves of correspondence soliciting information. In a letter printed to-day and written by Sir Clutha Mackenzie from India to Mr A. Leigh Hunt in Wellington there is a good example of this. He says the desire of British servicemen—presumably those in India—to come to New Zealand is simply incredible. Through organisation he believes that

at least 250,000 migrants could be recruited from the British forces in India, Britain and elsewhere-

It is not suggested that even a quarter of a million new settlers spread over, say, the decade following the war would give New Zealand the population she must have if she js to be capable of holding her head up in the post-war Pacific. They would, however, more than compensate lor the population lost to us through the slipping back of the birth-rate and virtual cessation of assisted migration since 1930. If most of them were in the parenthood age groups our natural increase would receive a filip it so badly needs. Responsible British statesmen like Lord Cranborne have acknowledged that imperial and overseas settlement and the interchange of populations between one part of the Empire and another are essential to the future happiness and prosperity—even survival—of the Empire. He has also said that the British Government intended to examine migration when it was possible to advance definite suggestions. An Empire-wide policy was required, and this would have to be framed in consultation with the Dominions. He has also pointed out how desirable it is to link social security with migration.

Past experience has shown that Britain has been anxious not to take the initiative since she set aside millions of money for an Empire Settlement Scheme, of which the Dominions took practically no advantage. We are now suffering for that neglect. A declining population and its attendant evils only show out gradually. They arrive like creeping paralysisRealisation of this central fact should be the best possible reason for planning now for what may not be able to take place for some years yet. The Dominions must make the advances. New Zealand could not give a better lead than by publicly proclaiming that we are willing and anxious to receive suitable settlers after the war and that we are ready to take our place at the Council table to hammer out a plan for an ordered redistribution of the Empire’s population. Nor need such a scheme be confined to the peoples of the Empire.