BIG POPULATIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5320, 31 August 1928, Page 4

BIG POPULATIONS.

EUROPE'S HUMAN WHERE SHALL IT GO ? It would be hard to maintain tde. proposition the world is getting idled with pe'op'lo atifd Unit we are crossing the threshold of that grimmest and most to be dieaded' of all struggles.! the light <for subsistence (writes Mi' J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.l’.. Leader of the English Political Labour Parly, in the' “Observer”). If there, were an absolutely free movement of population. there are still abundant empty spaces, to be- filled. J3ut there is np such free movement, and never can nor ought to be, unless we return to an absence of every l'o,im of settled order. Vast areas have been, prescripted by nations, Ike Australia, and these nations impose law® restricting Hie arrival of foreigners no,t because an uniregulate.d stream of migration men,ns that standard's of civilised life will be swamped, and the gains of long; generations of human effort will be submerged, by an incursion ol; people whose levels of socia'l aijjd personal right are low, and? who come not to fulfil but to- destroy. The. world is not a common open space where- everyone has a- right .to Squat; the boundary lines of owners run across it and enclose almost every square mile of its, surface. It is of such a world we must think When we face the problem of population. The closing by Immigration Laws of gateways through those barriers is the eaus|? of the fall in immigration from Europe by over onefourth, and the tightening pressure o>f population within the frontiers of some European nations.

ThOjUgh immigration is nqt always caused, by the pressure of population on subsistence', a very substantial part of it is, and every restriction put upon it bv countries controlling the habitable open spaces of the world means that somewhere else some congestion is being caused. Germany, Poland, Italy, a.nd Great Britain have-without question their social difficulties intensified by restricted emigration.

The question arises from the demands that population is making upon the resources of European countries : Has u natiO|ii a political o ( r ,a, mo’ial right .to receive immigrants ? A plain “Yes” or “No” ca,n)n'ot be given in answer. No political community ca,n hoard soil and, whilst putting it to no,- use itself, or having no prospect of behig able to use it within a reasonable. time, debar, people from coming from abroad to settle on it. But, on the o,ther hand, no people of low standards of living have a right to dump surplus population and swamp communities of a higher, social organisation, The very ticklish question of the intermingling of diverse races is, also involved! in this.

Naturally, one would think of some scheme of arbitration .to 'settle whether, particular claims co.me w'thin one or other of th<£.c two opposing rules,. But it is quite evident that at .the present moment no outside arbitration would be, accepted. Another feature of the problem is that it happens, that .the great open spaces to, which European na.tions can look for. relief are controlled by the United States and our own progeny. The United States will never consent to interference of any international authority on this matter, or. will our self-governing Dominions of Cana,da and Australia. They, it must be emphasised, are masters within their owni houses. The problem is within the British Empire, but is not controlled by the Empire. These selfgoverning States insist noon keeping a firm hand upo ( n their o.wn development, and will open tlie.ir doors only to those w.hote civic qualities are in harmony with their, own, and to quantities which they can receive without upsettine; their industrial conditions, and without creating for themselves; the problem of a population! surplus in relation of their own capacity of immediate, assimilation.

Assuming, therefore, that the pressure of population within the frontiers o.f the European illations increases, and that outlets such ' France -has been able to; give to Italians, and Germany to Poles, and Scotland' to Ireland (this ktst being a much more important matter than people yet understand), were to be closed, a very serious situation would arise.

'Where the nation is a .strong one, in order to relieve its difficulties, it would anjnex territory, as Italy is sometimes suspected of contemplating in Norther,]) Africa and Asia Minor. This might lead to war. not merely between .the people who wish .to acquire and those who revisit, but between the former and interested States. When the ojvei'-populated State is a small one/its economic and social standards wbuid .tend to be lowered, or it would use its resources with greater efficiency, and, amopgst other things, woAild attempt to encourage, industry behind. tariff walls.

This last will in the end be found to be moving in a viciqus road of action and reaction which will hamper the general development of .Europe. Wc are, therefore, driven back upo ( n the problem of a population itself. Can a State adopt means of keeping it? population within the limits of its own economic possibilities ? If it could, it would not qnly solve for itself problems of Imperialism, s>tandards of life and -health, pcr.hapn internal revolution and external war, but, for itself and the resjt of the world, it would help to keep <foqd prices down from famine levels apd allow an orderly settlement of those open areas whose climate and conditions enable them to become the homes of men w-ho have inherited th'c gains of a temperate civilisation. The 'casing of the pressure ‘>f population, which has hitherto been done, by e,migration must therefore be put as a responsibility op, the shoulder# ol .the States themselves.