GENERAL RUSSELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18530, 15 October 1923, Page 8

GENERAL RUSSELL.

VISIT TO UNITED KINGDOM. UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS. General Sir Andrew Russell, who represented New Zealand at the British Empire , Service League Conference in London in July last, writing to Mr. W. E. Leadley, secretary of the Christchurch R.S.A., deals with several subjects of general interest. Referring to migration matters, he stated that this was a ; very important question in Britain at present. , It was. in the" writer's opinion, the only real solution of the unemployment problem, but it was a pity its operation must necessarily bo slow, and it could not be relied on so much _as an immediate remedy as a preventive of unemployment in the future. He referred to the opposition of the Labour Party in Britain and in New Zealand to migration, and said the question should not, in any sense, be a party one, but should be a matter for the closest investigation and careful, deliberate organisation. "We could not get away from the fact," he wrote, "that there are on one hand huge areas of undeveloped land, and on the other hand distressing numbers of men who want employment in earnest,' and yet, owing to trade conditions, cannot find it. This ?uestion is worth all the trouble you and , or anyone else can give it.. "I visited the war graves in France, and am glad to be able to report that they are beautiful memorials to the men who fell; that the graves are extremely well cared for, and that the cemeteries give you the impression of gardens. No one who has-lost a friend or relation but can feel that everything possible is being done in the matter of the' graves. Sir James Allen, who has just returned from Gallipoli, assures me that the graves and cemeteries on the Peninsula aro equally well cared for."I attended a conference arranged by tho League -of Nations at Geneva to deal with the question of the employment of disabled soldiers. Representatives from nearly all tho European countries, including Germany wero there. It was curious to notice a distinct difference in the men- ■ tality of tho Continentals and the AngloSaxon . representatives. The, one idea on the Continent is to do everything by regulation and by legal obligation, whereas the Anglo-Saxon preferred to trust to voluntary effort and co-operation, and to look on compulsion as a last bad resort."