The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1916. AN EMPIRE PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2690, 9 February 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1916. AN EMPIRE PROBLEM

The problem of land settlement after the war,. which is receiving the attention of a Committee of tho British Board of Agriculture, is of direct interest to all parts of the Empire. The matter is already being considered by the Governments of New Zealand and Australia. In New Zealand arrangements are being'made to set aside areas of land for returned soldiers, and at land ballots special facilities are to bo given to the men who have risked their lives for the Empire. But much more will have to be done if the authorities are to be in a position to grapple successfully with the situation which will have to be dealb with when the war is over. Our Board of Agriculture might well give careful attention to this problem. Probably the Board is already thinking out a thorough and comprehensive plan of action. Great wars are generally followed by a period of restlessness. Thousands of men are shaken out .of .their grooves, and many of them do not return to their old ways. A change comes oyer their mental outlook. The desire for new careers becomes .too strong to resist. After the excitement of war and the experience of life in the open, the daily routine of office and workshop will become irksome to a large number of our young people, who will probably find rural occupations more congenial than work in the cities. Besides considering, our own special needs and interests we will have to approach the problem from th& Imperial point of view in connection with the immigration i question. There was a large increase of emigration from Germany after her wars with Austria and France, and after the Boer War of 1899-1902 the number of emigrants from the United Kingdom rose from 140,000 in 1898 to 259,000 in 1903, increasing in every subsequent year till it reached 395,000 in 1907. In drawing attention to these facts, the Bound Table lays stress 'upon the desirability of keeping the outflow from Britain within the Empire, Whether this can be done will depond mainly upon the actipn of the Dominions. Sir Eider Haggard is coming out to make inquiries, and the New Zealand Government will be expected to give some answer to the proposals and suggestion's which he will place before them. Sir Eider Haggard is of opinion I that hundreds of thousands will be anxious to emigrate from the United Kingdom after the war. The resettlement of these men constitutes a- big problem, which will have to be handled in a big way. The war has already shaken many old prejudices and upset many traditional ideas. It is widening our outlook and teaching us to see things from new points of view.- Britain and the overseas Dominions will have to take', counsel together with the object of arriving at a satisfactory understanding on this question of migration. It is as urgent and almost, if not quite, as important as trade and defence. These three problems are closely related. They must form the main features of any scheme for the reorganisation of the Empire. British statesmen have realised for some time past that somothing should be done to check the exodus of the best class of the country's industrial population, "ho land question was occupying a good deal of attention before the beginning of the war, and it is now regarded as one of tho most urgent , of the many problems which will have to be faced as soon as peace is restored. i/t Thc fact that some four million civilians have left their ordinary occupations in order to fight against the 'Empire's cnemids must have far-reaching social and , industrial consequences. In a recent luctuve in London Mr, Chiusto< shss Tujujer expressed the ouiuion

that Britain will have to follow tho policies of the overseas Dominions if she is to maintain her agricultural population, which at present forms a smaller' percentage of tho total than in any other country. He went on to say that when the Army is disbanded the whole question of land settlement throughout the Empire should come under review, and the Imperial and Dominion Governments should work together to bring order out o? the existing chaos. We are hoping to make tho British Empire self-sup-porting and self-sufficing after the war. In order to do this , its vast resources must be developed far moro thoroughly than hitherto. There is ample room and plenty of useful work within the Empire for all British folk. In view of the falling birth-rate we cannot afford to lose any of them. Mr. Turner reminds us that our Empire embraces no less than one-quarter of the land surface of the globe, and yet the whole agricultural population settled upon it amounts to only 13,400,000, whereas 20,000,000 people in Germany are engaged in rural occupations. Facta like these ought to make us think—and act.