NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19236, 27 January 1926, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

STATE AND EMIGRATION. A case for a substantial measure of State-aided emigration was made by Colonel the Hon. F. Vernon Willev, president of the Federation of British Industries, speaking at Glasgow recently. He said an examination of the nation's fortunes over the past 60 years showed that periods of' the greatest prosperity had coincided with periods of the greatest foreign investment and emigration. In the case of the former, the limit was set by the savings of the people. For the present the results of the war had contracted the country's lending capacity. The capacity to emigrate, however, was as great as, or greater than, formerly. Before the war Britain used to emigrate about 450,000 people per annum. This figure fell last year to 130,000. The difference was just about equal to the 2,250,000 odd increase in the population before the war, and half of this was accounted for by unemployment. Britons planted in no matter what part of the world become potential purchasers of British goods. There was need for heroic action in this matter, and the Empire Settlement Act was not adequate. Increased doles, subsidies and pensions naturally discourage emigrants. The Government would be justified in taking a bold, long view and setting aside £100,000,000, spread over a short period of years, to provide assisted passages and generous settlement grants, and to make the necessary arrangements with the colonies to help people in fertile parts of the British Empire. This would open up a promising future to the emigrants, and, at the same time, develop the Empire and increase Britain's own trade. POLICY OF GOODWILL. The policy of the Conservative Party in Britain was defined by Lord Salisbury, in a speech at York, as one of goodwill without weakness. He said that in industrial affairs no man had illustrated more prominently the policy of goodwill than Mr. Baldwin. He had refused to interfere with the political levy of the trades union. Taken by itself, the bill on the subject was perfectly proper, but to have begun a Government with such legislation would have had the effect of nipping in the bud the ' effort toward goodwill. Although the vast majority of the Conservative Party approved of the bill on its merits, they wero willing to forego it. The Government this year had met the threat of a universal strike engineered by the miners, by providing an opportunity for full investigation into the conditions of the industry. These things were not merely, in the cant phrase of the day, "gestures." They wero offers. If those offers were not accepted, this policy of goodwill must still be goodwill without weakness. The Government had made its offer, and it had done its utmost. If after that there was any attempt .to hold up the country, to stop its essential services, to visit upon innocent men, women and children the consequences of the disapproval of the miners of what the Government were "doing, then let it be well understood that the Government were resolved to fight to the last point in defence of the liberties of the country. He hoped the policy of Mr. Baldwin would produce the effect which it deserved to produce, and if it did it would be one of the greatest triumphs of political statesmanship that we had seen in our time.

PUBLIC HEALTH IN BRITAIN. A claim that the public health services of Britain are without a rival in the world was made by Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Minister of Health, at the centenary celebrations of the Birmingham Medical School. He said that by the measures taken against infectious disease some of the most fatal forms had been totally abolished, while others had been reduced to manageable proportions. The school medical service, which employed nearly 1800 doctors, had greatly improved the health of the children, and at the same time had taught parents the meaning of the simple laws of sanitation. The maternity and child welfare service, with its 2000 centres, had brought down the rate of infantile, mortality in the last 20 years with almost startling rapidity. British hospitals were provided with an unsurpassed nursing service, and although their development had been somewhat crippled by the intervention of the Great War, they were showing renewed signs of vitality and were .making a gallant effort to bring up their accommodation and equipment to modern needs. Finally there was the health insurance scheme, which employed 13,000 doctors and provided treatment in case of sickness for 14,000,000 people, a state of things not found in any other country. He emphasised the dependence of this vast organisation of public service, coupled with those private services which rounded off and completed the whole system of curative and preventive medicine, upon the personnel engaged in it; and the consequent importance of medical schools, adequately equipped and managed.

MODERN ARMY RECRUITS. In spite of the reduction in pay, the number of men offering for the Army is greatly in excess of requirements, and not more than 25 per cent, is taken, says a military correspondent of the Times. The process of selection is placing a new type of man in the service, so that the ranks are gradually changing in character. The new men are more intelligent and better educated, and greater numbers are entering to make the Army a profession. Health, moral tone and efficiency have never been higher, owing to the process of selection which is now possible. The " waster " has disappeared owing to insistence on a civil character certificate, petty offences are on the decline, and serious crimes very few indeed. Over 30,000 men of the new typo have been enlisted during the past year. It is not the out-of-work man who is contributing to the new personnel so much as the very young man who wants to make the Army his first serious employment, while the number of men who give up civil work to join is testimony to the Army as a betterpaid profession and to its higher status due to the rejection of those with indifferent records. The advance made in the quality of the Army personnel is being met by improvement in the social amenities and_ in sleeping accommodation and style of living. The report on the Army will be so satisfactory that the chance of the militia battalions being revived is small, since numbers sufficient to fill the regular ranks and gradually create a big reserve are'' at the disposal of the authorities. But while taking service of the early years of a young man's life for the benefit of the State, the man is now educated and taught a trade, so that he may be efficient and fit to re-enter civil life when he leaves the Army, if he does not go on for long service and pensl&'n.