IMMIGRATION INTO FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 6

IMMIGRATION INTO FRANCE.

The shortage of labour in France is an inevitable result of the low birthrate. Between 1906 and 1911 the population of France increased from 39,252,267 to 39,601,509, a rate of progress quite inadequate for industrial development; and if the comparison were confined to the truly French population, probably a decrease would be shown. A nation which has allowed the average number of births per marriage to fall to 2.1, and in 1907 and 1911 actually showed a deficit of births compared with deaths, is obviously not providing the human factor required for the maintenance of her present industrial status. The deficiency has been partly met by immigration from more virile European countries. French-speaking Belgians have come in from the north, and Italians have poured into Savoy and the districts round Nice, these nationalities predominating in a foreign European population which in 1911 numbered 1,132,696. Now, apparently, the shortage of labour is being made up by the importation of natives from North Africa. France bids fair to reverse the processes of colonisation as practised by other European nations, and instead of using her foreign possessions as an outlet for her home population is utilising her colonies as recruiting grounds to maintain her population at home. It has even been suggested that r ttive soldiers should be drafted from North Africa to strengthen the Army in France, and naturally the proposal has excited indignation in Germany. The policy of using North Africa as 'a recruiting ground either for labour or military forces would prove a very dangerous one. If France is unable to continue her national activities with her purely French population, she may reasonably encourage immigration from other European countries, but the raising of a colour question in the heart of Western civilisation is a desperate experiment, and one which thfe rest of Europe will view with concern. France has so obviously lost her effective colonising power that there seems no reason why she should not consent to hand over the control of the New Hebrides to Great Britain if offered compensation elsewhere-