THE Thames Star. WEDNESDAY, September 12, 1923 EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 159223, 12 September 1923, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

WEDNESDAY, September 12, 1923 EMPIRE SETTLEMENT.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all: with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”— Lincoln.

The visit to the Dominion of the . British overseas settlement delegation, under th: chairmanship of Six 'william Windham, will direct attention afresh to the scheme of Imperial migration as provided for in the Empire Settlement Act. It is the purpose of the visitors to inquire into the progress and prospects of the overseas settlement scheme. Under the Empire Settlement Act, which is the outcome of a resolution of the Imperial Conference, a readjustment of the population of the Empire is contemplated to the end that relief may be afforded in congested spots and that the vacant spaces may be occupied by British people. In the furtherance of this plan the British Government proposed to spend £l,000,000 a year to assist immigrants, and suggested that the dominions should expend a similar amount. It was estimated that the expenditure of £2,000,000 per annum would secure the transfer of between 60, 000 and 80,000 immigrants overseas. The United Kingdom was prepared under the scheme to expend an additional sUm of £2,000,000 “for assistance to land settlement and development” expecting again that, the dominions would furnish an equal amount. 'Some time has now elapsed since these proposals were launched, but no great amount of progress has been made. The object of the delegation’s visit is in part to ascertain how far the scheme can be developed. Mr. Massey has made it clear that New Zealand will co-operate with the rest of the Empire and help in the great work of distributing the surplus population of the Old Land. The pressure of population is about 400 to the square mile in the Motherland, while it is .sLx to the square mile in the dominions. Any proposal which will have the effect of transferring an overcrowded population to the vacant spaces where natural wealth awaits development cannot fail to prove of Imperial benefit Certainly a large cost will be involved but in the case of Great Britain the expenditure will be very much below the charge for unemployment relief and it will be much more profitable to the nation. Erom the date of the armistice to June of last year the payments for unemployed relief at Home, according to the Ministry of Labour, aggregated £88,700 000 Moreover, the difficulty of unimployment still remains. The re-arrange ment of the Empire’s population is as sensible as it will be serviceable, and as it is incumbent on large numbers of people to leave great Britain they should not be lost to tne Empire while the dominions require population. It would appear from the opinions expressed by Dr. Macnamara, who was Minister of Labour m the Government which passed tho Empire Settlement Act, that the progress that has been registered is distinctly disappointing. According to his statement (says the Otago Dailv Times) which vve published in a cable message this week, though £1,500,000 was provided for use in

the financial year 1922-23 only £35,000 was expended and only 24,104 persons were accepted for overseas settlement under the Act on June 30. He justly regards this accomplishment as seriously inadequate, especially as there are 30,000 young fellows employed in Great Britain or, which would be still worse, he may even mean in London alone, for he speaks of the danger of a drift into failure, “rookeries,” and the East End slums. Five years hence these men, unless migrated, will have lost their chance —they will have become demoralised. In the name of the truest Imperialism Dr. Maenamara leads as everyone concerned should get the Empire settlement scheme going, and as his plea closely concerns the dominion it should not be disregarded by the Government.