BRITAIN'S COLONIAL EMPIRE.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 71, 6 October 1939, Page 4

BRITAIN'S COLONIAL EMPIRE.

THE gathering momentum of the forces of Empire as they rally to the Motherland, 'is an indication to the world at large that the same deeprooted ties that have spelt the wonderful destiny of our Commonwealth in the past are as strong and as unfailing to-day as ever they were. New Zealanders have heard the call and felt the urge, and from our own Bay of Plenty the young men of the first contingent are being drafted into camp. In our small way the echoes of the mighty clash of nations are being felt, and every home has its own individual cause for apprehension. But wha't of the Empire and its future. What of the vast unpeopled spaces that go towards making our possessions some of the potentially richest spaces on earth? What on the other hand, of the untold thousands of helpiess refugees, the homeless Poles victims of the first brutal onslaught of a power-intoxicated dictator. What of the hunted .Jews, the helpless Czechs, the persecuted Catholics, the tortured political prisoners—is there no haven for these unfortunates. Here we live in security, a land of plenty, blessed by nature, and endowed with every feature and facility that goes to make life pleasant and worth while. One and a half millions, we represent but a section of the vast lands of Empire, which are crying out for more, greater, increased population. In a brief 100 years of history, our pioneering files reveal, not merely the imperishable names of English settlers, but French, German. Danish and even Greek heroes who blazed the trails of civilisation. We have no reason to doubt the ability of Jews, Poles or Germans to infuse just the kind of energy needed to tame and cultivate our wide undeveloped regions. In time they will become just as British as the best of us, just as loyal to the Empire as the growing Dalmation and Slavic populations which are of com paratively recent absorption. For example we have the tremendous melting pot of the United States of America, where an 1917 the efficient fighting force sent overseas, numbered in its ranks, not only men of English extract, but Italians. Germans, Poles, Frenchmen, Scandinavians Russians and even negroes and Chinese, all of whom proved unswervingly loyal to the land of their adoption. Is there any possible reason to doubt that the same result would be experienced in the British Empire, were its unpeopled places thrown open as a haven of refuge to the persecuted millions wlidl toVday can find no resting place. In any case it us our small opinion that it would be better in the interests of security to adopt a more open policy than suffer perhaps the forceful wresting of our inheritance from us by overcrowded and more powerful neighbours.