OUR HERITAGE-THE EMPIRE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 11

OUR HERITAGE-THE EMPIRE

A TOUR IN THE DOMINIONS. OBSERVATIONS BY COMMISSIONER D. C. LAMB. Under the title of “Our Heritage— The Empire,” Commissioner D. C. Lamb, director of the migration and settlement work of the Salvation Army, who within recent months returned to London from a tour in the overseas Dominions, undertaken at the request of General Booth, and with the “benediction” of the Dominions Department of the British Government, for; the purpose of surveying and investigating conditions with respect to migration, has embodied the conclusions derived from his observations. These are contained partly in the report he submitted to General Booth on his return, and partly in a paper he read before the Royal Colonial Institute in London. General Booth writes a foreword to “Our Heritage —The Empire” in which he says, “So far as the British Empire is conoernod it seems to me important to remember that, if notwithstanding our needs the genius of the British Empire should fail to fill the vacant spaces within tho Empire with people of British stock, wo cannot deny the rights of other nations to go in and capture the land.” LAGGARDS IN MIGRATION. Commissioner Lamb, who is regarded as one of the most important authorities on migration and overseas settlement, is at one with this view. In this book he says, “wo are slow to take up and develop our great inheritance overseas—we do not spend “the money devoted to that end, and that is little enough,” thereby asserting that the money, £3,000,000 per annum. which was voted by Parliament for the migration of British people to tho Dominions, has not been drawn upon to the extent it might have been considering the over-crowding and industrial depression which has existed in this country for a number of years. He further states that we are adding to our populatin at least 1,000 daily, and to set off this wo ought at a conservative estimate to emigrate at least 260,000 persons annually, whereas last year we only emigrated 85,398. THE REMEDY. As a remedy for this state of things Commissioner Lamb suggests a “new and really acute” migration policy in which Dominion Statesmen would coordinate. He advocates a scheme for intensive training for land work which would fit inexperienced men to start work on the land overseas similarly as men were hastily made ready for the war. “For the purposes of peace,” he asks, “Shall we do less than we did with the little enough preparation for the purposes of war? If men and women can be shown that overseas there awaited a job and a welcome they will be willing to go, but they must not go untrained.” The Commissioner favours the group settlement in migration which has its fullest expression in the scheme adopted by the state of Western Australia. He further states that in every corner of the Empire ho has found vast tracts of land capable of close settlement which only required the labour of willing workers to develop its potential richness. OPENINGS FOR PARTLY TRAINED MEN. In reporting to General Booth the Commissioner says: “One object of my tour was to find out what openings there would be in tho Overseas Dominions for partly-trained men with families between the ages of 30 and 40. Tho scheme you provisionally approved before I loft London contemplated taking men whose careers had been deflected by the war and postwar conditions and by intensive training in agriculture teaching them to milk and to plough. I am confirmed in tho possibility of quickly equipping these men —the same men who by a few months intensivo training for war were turned out competent soldiers- — for useful productive work overseas. Hundreds of such families could be absorbed under existing Government schemes.” GREAT DEMAND FOR BOYS.

With regard to boys Commissioner Lamb says: “There is abundant evidence in all parts of the Empire of an almost insatiable demand for such boys as wo have been sending out. They can quickly be absorbed by thousands.* They are welcome because they are adaptible; they fit readily into the economic and social life overseas, and they carry with them a breath of the Homeland.” Commissioner Lamb attributes the success of the boys who are settled overseas under General Booth’s Boys’ Scheme to the training they get at the Army’s farms at Hadleigh, Essex, where they are “innoculated with land sense.” The training farms at Hadleigh, he adds, can only deal with about 1000 boys per annum, and he suggests that the Government might well set up 100 “Hadleighs” without delay and keep them busy for the next ten years. HOME INFLUENCES WANTED. With regard to the ‘women’s’ side of migration work Comissioner Lamb says: “We found a strong call for women in all the ovorseas Dominions to take their share in tho management and eventually in the establishment of homes. We met at reunion meetings many women, young and old, who had migrated through the Army, and we were especially gratified with their obvious happiness,, healthy appearance and prosperous circumstance. The absence of the right type of women if allowed to persist will react adversely against migration generally for the. lack of home influences, a potent factor in all settlement problems, will ultimately lead to discontent and loss of inoentive. It is vital to the well-being of the whole Empire that this matter should be dealt with promptly and sagaciously along wise and generous lines.” SPECIAL COMMISSION ADVOCATED. Finally the Commissioner says to General Booth: “It is nearly two years since you publicly advocated the setting up of some authority composed of capable and experienced men who would bo free from political pressure. I am confirmed in tho need of a special Commission who would undertake all tho work incidental to tho selection, transportation and settlement of migrants—working with or without existing organisations, cooperating- with overseas Governments, but prepared to work independently. Of course all the settlers would be selected in harmony with the regulations of the overseas Governments as to physical, mental and moral fitness, and no one would be sent overseas until adequate reception and settlement arrangements had been made. Mrs Lamb, J.P., who accompanied the Commissioner on his missions, writes an interesting chapter on “Some Impressions of Our Tour.”