URGENT EMPIRE NEED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19139, 7 October 1936, Page 5

URGENT EMPIRE NEED

INCREASE IN POPULATION LONDON PRESS WARNING LONDON, Oct. 6. The Morning Tost, "in a lending article referring to migration, says that hitherto it has been customary to speak of the necessity of filling the enfpty spaces of the Dominion from Britain’s own surplus, hut, the moment is approaching when the Empire will be compelled to review the whole problem in a new light, because, in a very few years, so far from having a surplus, Britain will be suffering a decline in population. “Can Britain, therefore, afford to suffer an additional diminution through migration, lest her man power resources become dangerously weak)” asks the Morning Post. “In other words, ought we to encourage renewed migration until our birthrate shows a sustained and substantial rise. “You can only fill up tbe Empire out of a continuing surplus and now that no surplus is being produced, either in Britain or the Dominions, the problem has begun to wear an entirely different aspect. Clearly, the solution is more babies and that subject ought to engage the anxious attention of any future Imperial conference.”