ALIEN SETTLERS IN CANADA

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 53, 26 November 1926, Page 11

ALIEN SETTLERS IN CANADA

IMMIGRATION DANGER

The Lord Bishop of London has been warning Canada against the danger of admitting too many foreigners, pointout out, among other things, that the foreigner, in time of war, cannot be expected to fight for his adopted country as would a British-born subject. Unfortunately, the Bishop failed to except the French-Canadian population, and trouble followed. But this question of the flooding of the Dominion with foreign settlers is one which every Canadian has thought about and considered. Canada takes foreigners because she cannot get enough people from the Old Country. She has, indeed, no alternative Between leaving her vast tracks of fertile land uncultivated, and getting the plough to work held by an alien hand. And, this being the case, she does the only possible Thing: takes the , alien and endeavours to make of him a good citizen. There is always a danger when’ visiting a new country for tire first time of forming opinions precipitately. The European settler in Canada, whether front Norway, Poland, the Balkans, or Denmark ( is a skilled agriculturist tn most cases; the newcomer from Italy is a patient and steady labourer. Foesuch people Canada has plenty of room. They are in no way undesir- ‘ able, being 'workers and folk used to hardship. Indeed, in many cases, the writer has seen such folk go ahead of their British-borrt neighbours. Norwegians make first-rate lumbermen, fishermen, and farmers. Poles are tenacious on the land, as are Danes and Hollanders. The Italian has supplied the bulk of the labour whieh has built Canadian cities. Tie seldom gives trouble. Foreign-born settlers may be divided, into two classes: those who come to be absorbed and produce native-born Canadians; those who come to earn good . ' wages, send them home, and, in due course, follow. Tn the latter class are the majority of Italian workers. They perform a good service, but they take money out of the country.

The real problem of the foreigner, however, entirely escaped the Bishop of London, probably because he had, when, he made his speech, seen but the eastern half of the Dominion. Tlie greatest menace Canada has to contend with to-day is the seepage from the overcrowded Orient of the yellow races. Chinese and Japanese settlers are obtaining a dangerously strong grip on British Columbia. They have cornered the truck-garden markets, are invading the salmon fisheries, and are the sole operators of laundries. These are the real settlers who take all and give nothing. They can never lie absorbed, never be anything hut aliens in the full sense of the word.

America has contrived to mould a nation out of the many strains of Nordic and Latin Europe, Canada can do the same. To say that all, newcomers must be British born is going too far. Peasants are the same the world over—-hard-working, thrifty, and peace-lov-ing; the ideal folk for such new countries as Canada.