EMPIRE POPULATION

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1926, Page 2

EMPIRE POPULATION

BETTER DISTRIBUTION WANTED. (Australia A- N . 7,. Cable Association.] (Received this day at 9.0 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 26. A Colonial Institute deputation waited on the Hon. L. C. Af. S. Amery and urged an 'Empire crusade to explain to every citizen the seriousness of the situation and the necessity for a redistribution of the population. The crusade should be non-party, and labour .should co-operate. The Government should evolve a land .settlement policy in Britain, offering terms as favourable as those obtainable in the Dominions. This would remove the suspicion of migration existing among the lahourile rank and file. The Hon Amery, replying agreed that a proper (distribution of the people of tho Empire was the key to future Imperial strength. He confessed he was disappointed at- the slowness of migration in recent years. It was. firstly, essential to get public opinion at Home and overseas to march ahead.

Air Amery, emphasised the fact that increased trade would lead to a demand for migrants. Obviously it was impossible lor the Government to undertake the rosponsilility of administering settlement overseas or even controlling selection, because assisted migration might he eo-operativelv administered and financed. A departure from tho fifty-fifty principal would destroy The moral basis of co-operation, while voluntary migration societies could not expect the Government to pay all their administrative expenses. The Government felt that in. one direction ii might ultimately lie justified in departing from the co-operative principle, namely, hv providing, at the Government’s sole cost, training centres in Britain for men with families and single girls before migration. Alt' Amery said he hoped, eventually, to amend the Empire Settlement Act in this direction. Areantime he was watching the Ministry of Labour’s training experiments.