OVERCROWDED ENGLAND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2143, 28 December 1920, Page 18 (Supplement)

OVERCROWDED ENGLAND

PLEA FOR EMIGRANTS' FREE BRIDGE. The most momentous and, as Carlyle would say, "devouring," piece of news that has recently appeared in our English papers seemed to arouse no special interest, writes Mr J. Saxon Mills, in the "Daily Chronicle." We have been told ofiicially that, on the basis of the returns of births and,-deaths for first half of 1920, the population of England and Wales is advancing by a gross natural increase of over a million a vear and a net increase of over half a million. Many people imagine that the War, by its dreadful destruction of life, served at least to relieve the pressure of over-population iii this country. Nothing of the ' kind. Our natural increase "on the wings of the stork" still continued, though somewhat abated, during the War, while the emigration sluices were completely closed. And so I see it is estimated, very conservatively in my view, that there are in these devoted islands to-day a million more folks than in 1914. A Doubtful Outlook. What 'does this mean? Even before the War England was not too easy a country to live in. Competition was terrific and unemployment always smouldering and chronic, ready to become acute with every trade depression. The burden of the National Debt per capita in 1914 was about £l4—to-dav it is roughly £l3O. I need only refer to the vast increase in the price of commodities and the cost of labour. Moreover, tens of thousands of women who before the War stayed at home or ejntered domestic service are now competing in the. employment market for work and wage. And on the top of all this we Have a million more mouths to feed, while the always inadequate relief of emigration is still practically inoperative. In other words, we are continually forcing steam into a boiler without safety-valve and hoping there may be no explosion. London Overgrown.

It is quite worth noting, too, that one out of every six or seven people in these islands lives in London. The truth is London has become a problem too big for any imaginable solution. It "would be useful to know what proportion of that broad and deep spate of humanity which flows and ebbs daily between Central London and the suburbs is really productive and not parasitic Suppose 30 per cent, were to eliminate themselves. Should we suffer more than a temporary inconvenience? Should we be richer or -poorer I It is just 50 years since Froude, in a memorable "short study," drew attention to "the floating tide of Humanity which surges and eddies round the London suburbs" among the other symptoms of what he called, even in those days, "the enormous festering crowd" of over-popu-lation. And since 1869 we have added fully 16,000,01)0 more to our population. The Way Out. Of course, there, must be a limit to the numbers these islands can accommodate per square mile. There seems to be a growing impression that that,limit has been pretty well reached, if not far overpassed, and that every social and political problem in our country is being inflamed by a growing plague of people. No one suggests any Malthusian legislation. We want all the British babies we can obtain, but not in these narrow islands. It is over' 70 years since Carlyle called for that "free bridge for emigrants," along which "every honest, willing worker who found England too strait" could pass into new British lands—"there to be a real blessing, raising new corn for. us, purchasing new webs and hatchets from us," anr!- he would have added" if he had seen this great War, ever ready to spring to England's defence, in the hour of need.

The Free Bridge. That bridge we have never got, and one begins to think the British race does not deserve its vast temperate estate, to west and south. I called at " the Oversea Settlement Committee, and they told me the difficulty was the shortage of shipping. Carlyle was audacious enough to suggest that our "idle Navy ships" should be used for this great pur- ( pose. Once I suggested this to Mr I Rudyard Kipling,> who exclaimed in horror, "Oh, but they would spoil the paint." I will draw no morals, but simply ask my readers to give a thought or two to the fact that on the, very brink of a severe trade depression, and with Labour difficulties all round us, the population of England and Wales is increasing at <a net rate of well over 10,000 a week.