THE SPREAD OF THE EMPIRE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2210, 24 July 1914, Page 4

THE SPREAD OF THE EMPIRE.

Some remarkable figures liavo just been published in connection with! the; 6prcad of the British Empire. ; The estimated white population • of tho Empiro in 1911 was £60,000,000, mainly Anglo-Saxon, but partly French, Dutch, and Spanish. This white population includes a cousiderablo sprinkling of Jewish blood. The, remaining 370,000,000 include 316,000,'000 of the natives of India and Ceylon, 40,000,000 black races, 6,000,000 Arabs, 6,000,000 Malays. 1,000,000 Chinese, and 1,000,000 Polynesians, with various other elements, including 100,000 Red Indians in Canada Of the total population over 210,000,000 are Hindus, 100,000,000 Mohammedans, 70,000,000 Christians, 12,000,000 Buddhists, 12,000,000 Animists, -ljooo,ooo Sikhs, Jains, and Parsers, '750,000 Jews, and the remainder Polytheists and idol-worshippers. . A fow more figures will show the approximate turnover of the British Empire in coin of the realm. To quote from the latest figures available, the total trade of the Empire in 1912 was valued at approximately £1,850,000,000 (imports £1,030,000,000, exports £820,000,000), of which 72.6 per cent, was foreign and 27.4 per cent. inter-Im-perial. Tho approximate totals for the principal trading units of the Empire were as follow:—The United' Kingdom, £1,344,000,000; India, £290,000,000; Canada, £175,000,000; Australia, £147,000,000; Now Zealand, £39,000,000; and South Africa, £94,000,000.: These are the principal trading units of the Empire, and some idea of tho potentialities .of cach unit can bo obtained by comparing --it with the United Kingdom, and noting tho Telativo area, population, and trade total in each case