The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1916. PEOPLING THE EMPIRE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 54, 30 September 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1916. PEOPLING THE EMPIRE.

The great and imperative need for peopling the Empire is trenchantly dealt with by that well-known publicist, Sir L. Chiozza Money, who, m a recent article, brings home to us the surprising fact 'that in all the British Dominions there are fewer people of British blood than there are Germans in Germany. This eminent statistician and writer on economics proves that when the war broke out tho increase of population in Germany was much greater proportionately than the increase in the United Kingdom. Each recent year had also seen the population of Germany gam upon England's population in point of numbers. The German birth-rate i has fallen, but, at the outbreak oi 1 the war it was still higher than Britain's.. Between 1901 and 1911 the j population of the United Kingdom increased by fewer than four millions, I while the population of Germany inj creased 8] millions. Thus, in 1911 : Germany came to have a population lof nearly sixty-six millions, while | th 0 United Kingdom numbered a 1 Jitfclo over forty-live millions. Fur- | ther it is shown that the gain made by Germany in population of. the French population since the sad day; | of 1870, illustrates forcibly bow badly !in error that nation is which fails jto increase and multiply. When th n \ Franco-Gorman war broke out the I population of what becamo the Ger- \ man Empire was little more lhin that lof France—forty-one millions to ' thirty-s;>; millions. By the -Lime tho • present war began in 1914. an ainazI

ing change had occurred in these figures. The French population had risen in forty-four years by fewer than four millions, while that of the German Empire hsd advanced to sixty-eight millions, a sain of twentyseven millions. Sir L. C. Money, touching on this uspect, refers to the fallacy of the Mnlthusian doctrine. "1 wonder," he r-ays, " what Malthus, who argued of men as though they' were animals and no more, would have thought of the compara-tive-progress of France and Germany j between 1870 and 1914. France practised Maltlmsianism and remained stagnant in population. Yet her people as a whole failed to achieve the| increase hi economic status which was recorded by Germany in the forty-four years. Not only did Germany in that period add twenty-seven pillions to her population, but at the end of the period her wage rates had risen above those of France, and he,- production of wealth per head was greater than that of France. Or let us make comparison between the .Tinted Kingdom and France. In 1870, as we have seen, France had thirty-six millions of people. Jn the same year the United Kingdom's population was much less; it was only thirty-one millions. When this war broke out France had fewer than forty millions, while our population had risen to over forty-five millions; Thus, while we had added fourteen ; million, France had added fewer than four millions. Yet in the same period British wealth had increased enormously more than that of France." But of later years Britain's birthrate has fallen steadily, and has long been a matter for concern to those who have given thought to the seriousness of the question. In 1906 the British birth-rate per 1000 living was 27.2, and the death-rate per 1000 living 15.5. In the year before the war the birth rate had fallen to 23. S and the death rate to 14. Thus, whereas in 1900 the natural rate of increase was 11.7 per 1000 of the population, in 1914 it was only 9.8 per 1000 of the population. If our great Empire—greater to-day in glorjous achievement than it has ever been before—is to remain great, there must he increase in our white population and such increase must at least be as rapid as that of the nations who sought our downfall with such ! dark treachery. The war must awaken Britons to the truth that race stagnation means national suicide.