15 OCTOBER 1937, Page 3

Peopling the Dominions The renewed enthusiasm for Empire migration which

is being displayed, both by the spokesmen of our own country and of certain of the Dominions, at the third annual Empire Migration and Development Conference which has been meeting at the Guildhall this week, is to be welcomed. Empire migration. has been at a standstill ever since the incidence of the world economic depression, and the advant- ages of its resumption are obvious. It is therefore a little unfortunate that one or two of the speakers at the Conference should have laid so much stress on the need of British emigrants in order to keep the Dominions British pure and simple. British predominantly they undoubtedly should be. But if there are Scandinavians or Germans of the right type, or indeed any peoples desiring to emigrate to the Dominions, who have the necessary physical, financial and social requirements for beneficial emigration, who are prepared to comply with the laws and, within reason, the customs of their new domicile, who, in fact, are capable generally of becoming useful and respectable citizens of the particular Dominion, then certainly no impediment should be placed in the way of their emigration. On the other hand an Australian speaker was clearly right who emphasised the valuelessness to the Dominions of emigrants who settled there only long enough to acquire a competence and then returned with it to the country of their origin.