The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 15. GERMANY'S BIG PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 278, 15 April 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 15. GERMANY'S BIG PROBLEM.

Almost every German who leaves the Fatherland to reside outside i=i lost to his Empire. Germany has no successful colonies. There is no problem before German statesmen of such vast importance as finding places for surplus population. One little fact will show how necessary it is that Germany's ambition to branch out must be satisfied. Every year the population increases l>v one million, and there is no. true Imperial emigration to counteract the burden. Britain's population increases only at the rate of about half a million a year, but there are colonies under the flag to which excess population can go, and whose growing peoples are a strength to the British Empire. Thirty years ago the emigration from Germany was at the rate of over 200,000 a year; last the rate of outflow was under 23,000. During the three quinquennia of maximum emigration, ISBI-1595, 1,744,990 persons left the country; during the 13 years 1895-1909 the number was 415,90 G. During the whole period the emigration rate lias fallen from 4.86 to 0.39 per 1000 of the population. Quite wonderfully Germany has not found insuperable difficulties in maintaining at home her everincreasing population, but every effort of German statesmanship is in the direction of making provision for a day when it will be no longer possible to do so. Germany acutely feels the fact that her sons who leave the Fatherland are lost to her, knowing that her trade rival, Britain, does not weaken her position by losing population which flows to her oversea dominions. Germany's methods are remarkably practical, and it may be possible for her by extending her internal industries to maintain for some little time the eitra yearly million of people. That her enormous preparations are all in the direction of finding an outlet there is no doubt. That she will obtain cither by diplomacy or arms her necessary ambition is certain. Tho rapid and wonderful increase of population has made the food problem an acute one. A growing proportion of tho German people now obtain a living from trade and industry, approximating more closely to the condition of the people in Britain, which, however, is but half the size of Germany, and who obtain the larger bulk of their food supplies from outside the kingdom. During the 25 years 18S2-1907 the number of persons engaged in Germany in agriculture, forestry and fishing increased from 5,23G,49(> to 9,883,257, an increase of 1,04(5,701, or 20 per cent., while those engaged in industry, mining, trade and transportation increased from 7,0(30,783 to 14,733.880, an increase of 0,707,097, or 83 per cent., the inerease.in industry and mining being 70 per cent., and in trade and transportation 121 per cent. During the interval the population of the Empire had increased by JSC per cent. German trade is protected by heavy tariffs, but the increase of the working consumer and tho decrease of the food producer, added to the annual million increase of population, all tend to diminish the food supply, or at least to distribute it more widely. Already a considerable proportion of the grain required has to be imported. The yearly production of wheat and spelt stand? at something over 4,000,000 tons, or little more than the figure of 20 years opo, while that of rye ranges from 9,500,000 to 9.750,000, or about 8 per cent, more than 20 years ago. though the population has increased by over 25 per cent. On the average of the last five years, 1905-1000, the balance oE imports of wheat necessary to supplement the home produce has been 2,008,000 tons, comparing with 4,108,000 tons produced, while the production of rye has almost .sufficed to cover home needs. There is] every likelihood that the proportion of I

wheat imported will steadily increase. Germany must increase her foreign trade in order to feed her people at home. A glance at her foreign trade figures for last year will show, the ne- ; ccssity: Raw Materials and Half-manufactured Goods for Industrial Purposes. Imports £234,445,000 Exports 85,095,000 Food, Luxuries and Cattle. Imports £127,770,000 Exports 33,670,000 Manufactured Goods. Imports £63,790,000 Exports 210,845,000 If Germany cannot rid herself of her surplus population by obtaining colonics for them, she must necessarily expand her industries to the further advantage of her diminishing agriculture. From the German standpoint, the first solution of a great problem is the more reasonable and advantageous. Germany, although she loses many of her sons, who become successful colonists under other flags than hers, does not altogether lose sight of them, and one of the reasons for a growing desire for colonics of her own is the known abifiitv of free Germans to achieve place and success abroad. The diminishing tide of German emigration is possibly due to the added intensity of a national feeing made so by Germany's" vast preparation for aggression and expansion at whatever cost. There is no reason to doubt that if Germany were able to obtain colonies in which the colonist and not the soldier held the power, there would be no difficulty in peopling them from the Fatherland. In tlift -mcan time, German emigrants have to turn their faces towards the colonies of other Powers—a condition that is galling to a nation'ambitious to display all the qualities which have made her trade rivals great.