Emigration The Lord Privy Seal is to sail for Canada
to try to improve the prospects of emigration from Great Britain, and, indirectly, to forward one of the many attempts to solve our problems of unemployment. He is following up the Unionist policy, and we wish him success. He goes at a rather inauspicious moment, for the harvest in Canada is likely to be short, and no extra hands will be needed from here as they were last year. That, however, is only a temporary discouragement of temporary work. The Royal Empire Society has been conducting an inquiry among voluntary bodies that deal With ernigratiun. The results are disappointing. The Settlement Act of 1922 is pronounced a failure, owing to "rigid official conditions." Canada and, in a less degree, Australia are said to be unsympathetic to assisted emigrants, espe- cially where they come across the Ministry of Labour. Greater comfort and security (due to our insurance schemes) have lessened the impetus to emigration. The Societies recommend more propaganda in schools and elsewhere, and more preparatory training, and they have no doubt that the expensive continuation of pensions and other benefits to emigrants from the pocket of the tax-payers at home would encourage some who stay here clinging to a meagre but assured income. We were interested to notice that Sir Edmund Davis, speaking at a share- holders' meeting of an African copper mine, said that British miners were emigrating to Africa.
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