POPULATING THE EMPIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18763, 17 January 1923, Page 8

POPULATING THE EMPIRE

RICH NATURAL RESOURCES AWAITING DEVELOPMENT. PROBLEMS FOR THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION. (By John Buchan in the Observer.) No one of us can bo very cheerful today' when ho sees the masses of honest men seeking work and unable to find it; and the endless misfits, where men capable of higher things are forced into hack-work by the need of bread. It is a season of stocktaking, and wo go carefully over our assets, weighing each of them and labouring to discover some means of using it to better purpose. There is one asset which wo are inclined to rule out of that category altogether and sot down ps a bad debt—the human asset, the superfluity of men. Is this wise The war has left ua .a poor people, yet the natural resources of the British Empire include, with one exception. everything necessary to wealth and prosperity. That exception is men. It is of little use that we possess iron and coal and every kind of mineral and vast fertile areas if there is not the labour to develop them. At present onr resources of manpower have not been called out. They are still congested in Britain. Take the case of Australia, where, of ell the dominions, the need of immigrants is greatest. Parts of the tropical territory no doubt present special difficulties, though far fewer difficulties than is generally assumed; but in the large temperate tracts ideal conditions for settlement exist, and yet men are there only in the scantiest numbers. Whe is nearly 25 times the size of the United Kingdom, and her whole population is lililo more than two-thirds of Greater London. In England and Wales the population averages 626 to the square mile; in Australia the average is less than two. The whole continent is a vast treasure-house waiting to be opened. THE STOPPAGE OF EMIGRATION.

The value of emigration is generally admitted—loo generally admitted —for it tends therebv to become a pious opinion and not an active policy. But it has always had its critics, and recently I have heard it urged that Britain would be foolish now to deplete herself of her best citizens. Since, naturally, the dominions wanj only those who arc fit and willing to work, it is argued that in sending such men overseas wo are lowering our own national standard and raising the proportion of the unemployed among our own people. But there is one very striking fact which such critics overlook. Our normal yearly stream of emigrants, to which in the past they made no objection, was entirely arrested by the war. Up to 1914 sonic 300.000 persons, mostly young and healthy, left Britain every year, the majority settling in the dominions. For five years emigration was at a standstill, and even now it has not been restored to anything like its due proportion. Even deducting the three-quarters of a million who were lost in the war, the net increase of our population duo to this five years stoppage of migration amounts to 1,250,000. That is a fact to be weighed. It means an enormous increase in the number of persons seeking employment here, and creates a most serious situation in view of our depressed industries and restricted trade, “e

have not enough jobs for even the fittest of our young men, and unemployment naturally tends -to lower their health and efficiency. THE WAR AND THE HOMELAND. Emigration since the war has therefore acquired a now urgency. It is not only de sirablo, but essential. It interests Britain and her dominions alike. An attempt, it may be remembered, was made shortly after the war to settle ex-service men overseas. The Oversea Settlement Committee, under the chairmanship of the new 1* irst Lord of the Admiralty, granted free passages to all approved ex-service men. and ■women who wished to settle in any part of the Empire, and nearly 80,000 persons availed themselves of the scheme, most of whom, it may be hoped, are now successful settlers. But 80.000 is too small a number to do more than touch the fringe of the problem. There have been special difficulties. It has been found that the ordinary pre-war desire to emigrate has largely disappeared. _or most of those who fought in the war, and for many who did not, the glamour of overseas has gone and the instinct for adventure is dormant. The war, too, I think, revived in most men an appreciation of the charms of their own land, and they are loath to leave it. But the home country is not much of a homo to the workless, and cruel necessity will revive the impulse to emigrate. Again, since the war, even when that impulse existed, the lack of shipping facilities and the huge rise in passenger rates put any considerable movement out of the questlon- NEW PLANS.

In July, 1921, an important step; was taken when the Conference of Empire Prime Ministers urged the introduction of legislation for promoting migration in co-operation with the dominion Governments. The Empire Settlement Act of this year, which was me consequence, holds out the first hope of a practical scheme. This Act authorises the British Government to spend £1,150,000 during the financial year 1922-23 and up to £3,000,000 in each subsequent year for a total period of 15 years, upon co-operation, to an extent of not more than half thentotal expenditure, with dominion Governments or approved public or private organisations in schemes for migration and settlement. Under this Act suitable settlers may receive a free grant of one-third of the cost of their passages to Australia, and in the case of need a loan of the remainder. Meanwhile, settlement schemes in New South Wales. Victoria, and Western Australia are being pushed forward. This Act is undoubtedly one of the most hopeful measures of our day, but its existence at present is far too little known. An Act of Parliament is a remote thing to the ordinary man, and usually only the visit of the tax-collector or the Government inspector informs him of it. What this Act needs in order that the right sort of emigrants should be attracted ami helped is widespread publication and explanation. Above nil. it needs to be supplemented by some practical education in the conditions and chances of overseas life.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION. Now—and here 1 come to the main point of those observations—the British Empire Exhibition has been underUKOii largely to bring these points homo to the British public In 1924 Wembley Park will bo tho scene of the largest exhibition that has ever been hold m this country. Its exhibits will bo confined to tho British Empire but they will comprise every known variety of m.muiactuied goods and raw materials; it will be a concrete demonstration of the immense resources that are awaiting development. So lar it will follow tho lines of other exhibitions, though on a fur greater scale. But, apart from exhibits in tho usual meaning of the word, this exhibition will provide tho widest possible information on all imperial matters. Lectures and cinematographs will demonstrate tho conditions and opportunities awaiting settlors overseas, and a special Intelligence Bureau will give detailed information on the subject to all inquirers. Special attention will be paid to tho migration of women through the co-opera-tion of the Society for the Oversea Settlement of British Women, In Australia men are in an altogether disproportionate majority, and the Commonwealth Government are much exercised over the problem of attracting suitable young women.