One of the most important subjects which the. Imperial Conference
is considering is the comparative failure of the Empire Settlement Act, which was a direct result of the Imperial Conference held in 1921. It was then estimated that between 60,000 and 80,000 people would be annually assisted to migrate to the Dominions. As a matter of fact, no more than 31,000 have been assisted in the sixteen months during which the Act has been in operation. The only Dominion for which any con- siderable number of emigrants have been assisted is Australia, where 23,400 have been settled, as against 3,851 in Canada. Colonel Buckley, who quoted these figures at the Conference on Friday, October 5th, gives several reasons for these poor results. There is a con- siderable amount of Labour opposition to an emigration policy. Economic depression is said to limit it ; people are averse from leaving home. None of these reasons, however, seems very adequate. Economic depression, we should have thought, would rather have stimulated than restricted emigration. Political opposition has been confined to a certain section of the Labour Party ; and we should have supposed that people are more willing to try their fortunes in a new country now than at any other period of our history. We cannot but feel that there is some further explanation of the failure.
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