FOREIGN INVASION OF CANADA

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1617, 25 February 1903, Page 69 (Supplement)

FOREIGN INVASION OF CANADA

IVf Finot, in his articles in ct 'ha Revue," maintains the advantages of an Anglo-French union as the nucleus of a united. Europe oyer the idea of Anglo-American union advocated by Mr Stead in “The Americanisation of the Yv'orid.” On the top of tins comes a paper by Mr Archibald S. Hurd, in the “±- ortmgiitty Review/' in which we find that —let us regard M. I mot’s proposition with as much favour .as we like—the Americanisation of the British Empire goes on m spite of our wishes and predilections.

THE DECLINE OF THE BRITISH. Mr Hurd's paper deals with “ Foreign Invasion of Canada;” but if “The .Americanisation of Canada” were not in a sense"a bull, it would have been a much better title. Canada, he points out, is, firstly, being de-Angiiciseid by foreign immigration and by the growth of Hie French; and, secondly, Americanised by the phenomenal flood of immigrants from across the frontier. The natural growth of the Canadian population is small. The census of 1881 showed an increase in ten years of 19 per cent.; in 1901 the increase had fallen to 11.11 per cent. And it is uot the British, but the French, who account for most of this; small increase. The French Canadians double m numbers every twenty-live years. _ Families of eighteen and twenty children are not infrequent; and in Quebec the birth rate is 36.86 per 1000. The French Canadians, Mr Hurd insists, are not well affected to England, and they enjoy their liberties as sops given by the British nation in the hope of keeping them quiet. Meantime immigration from the European Continent has increased, while the number of British and Irish-born settlers is 100,000 less than it was thirty years ago. Tile British element in Canada is therefore- relatively falling off. Settlers from the United States are flooding the country. East year only 25 per cent, the immigrants came from the United Kingdom. while 35 per cent, came across the frontier. In 1801 there were 17,887 immigrants from the United States, and only 9401 from England and Wales, 1476 from Scotland and 933 from Ireland. In the present year, down to the beginning of October, 27,000 Americans have • entered Canada. The immigrants considerable capital with them, and become permanent settlers. Of the 127,891 who had settled in Canada by last Christmas, 84.4.93 have already been naturalised.

THE AMERICANISATION OE CANADA Canada is, in fact, becoming Americanised. British emigration is becoming every day less important. Mr Hurd explains this largely by the erroneous ideas which are so widespread in England as to the severity of the Canadian climate. Mr Kipling's de>scription of Canada as “My Lady of the Snows” has been itself sufficient to throw back the development of the colony by Englishmen a whole decade. Mr Hurd, however, says that the immigration of Americans, who thoroughly know the Canadian climate, shows that the climate is a good one. As a result of it all, we witness the development of a Canadian policy which, if not anti-British, is not pro-British. The Canadian immigration officials regard the problem solely from a Canadian point of view, and welcome the wealthy and enterprising American who crosses. their frontier. Mr Hurd thinks that this threatening movement can be checked by spreading juster Knowledge among Britishers in regard to the Canadian climate. But in view of the increasing inclination of Englishmen for country life, it seems more probable that the Americanisation of the British Empire has definitely begun in Canada,

CANADA’S AMERICANISED PRESS. In an article in the ‘’‘’Monthly Review” on “Canada and Imperial Ignorance,” Mr W. Beach Thomas also lays stress on the Americanisation of the country: • “American ideas, if not America, are taking the country captive. The Ameri-

cans have no insidious intentions, no arriere pensee—an American seldom has. lie is generally candid, if not honest, to a degree. He goes where he goes to make money, and makes no pretence of ulterior objects; he neither simulates nor dissimulates. But power goes with the making of money as an inseparable accident; and the American is apt to win other prizes than millions. It is no small achievement that the Press is completely captured: It has been done merely in the way of business; but so effectively that in the last ten years English magazines have been practically banished. Private people and the clubs still take in this or that weekly paper, but it may be said that there is practically no public sale at all; no agents who take English papers, no public which demands them. Some of the shells may be seen, but an inspection of the contents reveals the American edition, in which articles'especially designed to suit American tastes Have been substituted in New York for the more typical English material.” Mr Thomas argues that we are losing our hold on Canada owing to the ignorance of that colony which is. so common in England, an ignorance which leada some Englishmen to address their letters, “Ottawa, Canada, the United States.” He thinks that it would be more profitable to expend the .£12,000,000 a year now spent on maintaining paupers in making immigration easy.