THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1926. PLANNING THE EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, 8 February 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1926. PLANNING THE EMPIRE.

On his return to Australia from the Imperial Conference, the Federal Prime Minister (Mr. S. M. Bruce) announced that a delegation of three or four of the best financial and business brains in Britain would visit Australia to see whether some scheme could not be evolved under which Australia would be able to absorb more migrants. Later news from London is to the effect that actual arrangements for the visit of the suggested delegation have yet to be made, though Mr. Bruce’s proposal has been most favourably commented upon. Whatever the stage to which it has been carried, the proposal obviously is one that should deserve consideration in any .and every Dominion of the Empire. The ill-balanced distribution of the white population of the Empire is of supreme concern to every British country. The vital condition of security apd well-being for the whole Empire is the effective occupation of those British lands that are available for white settlement. Our vast tropical dependencies are in the last analysis a responsibility and a burden rather than an element of strength. But it is reasonably certain that if we are able before it is too late to settle, occupy, and. use the temperate areas of the Empire, the British nation will then be better placed than any other nation has yet been to lead the world in peaceful progress. We are as yet, however, very far from being in a position to contemplate this proud destiny as something that is certain and assured. Our efforts to occtPpy and develop the Imperial estate compare badly with the magnificent breadth and scope of this incomparable heritage. At the present day, the Mother Country carries a far greater population than she can comfortably support, while at the same time other Empire countries are hampered • and handicapped for want of an adequate white population. Since the war, costly and laborious efforts have been made by both State and semi-publie agencies to amend this unhappy condition of affairs, but the results obtained, though frequently .good in detail, cannot be described as in the mass impressive. Empire migration is making poor and halting progress,, and there are scaremongers who maintain that it must be further limited if recurrent unemployment is to be averted here and in other oversea countries. If this were the final word on the subject, it would have to be concluded that the deevlopment of the Empire is a task beyond tfee strength and ability of the British race. The alternative

fortunately exists of dealing in a big, bold, and methodical way with a problem that is proving intraetible under more timid treatment. The idea of inviting the best financial and business trains of Britain to map out a scheme of industrial development for this or that Dominion is full of hopeful possibilities. We have in this country men possessed of a full and accurate knowledge of our national resources, but if the most is to be made of these re-’ sources, particularly where the development of secondary industries is concerned, we must draw freely upon the technical knowledge and organising power of the captains of British industry. It is hardly in doubt that such men could point the way to the development of selected industries which would enable the Dominion to carry safely an increasing population and to increase correspondingly its production of wealth, while still offering to Britain an excellent market for her manufactured exports. Splendid scope unquestionably exists for Imperial economic co.-operation on these lines, but advice must be sought from the ablest captains of industry in the Empire if this co-operation is to develop as it might and should. The proposal of the Commonwealth Prime Minister commends itself as a practical step in this

direction. The lead he is giving is one that might well be followed by other Dominions, and not least by New Zealand.