We are delighted to learn that Mr. Arnold-Forster has been
appointed to preside over a Departmental Committee of the Colonial Office—he has actually started for the Cape—to inquire into the best way of placing soldier-settlers on the land in the Transvaal and Orange Colony. Mr. Chamberlain's choice is a wise one, and we have no doubt that Mr. Arnold-Forster's power of hard work and thoroughness in detail will stand him in good stead: We trust, however, that he and his colleagues will not take a narrow view of their duties, and act on the assumption that only settlement on the land and as farmers is to be encouraged. Soldiers who know a trade, or who for any other reason are inclined to stop and try their hick, and who wish to grow up with the country, ought equally to be encouraged. We have no doubt that those who will ply "the homely shepherd's slighted trade" and the allied agricultural vocations are most desirable, but the men who do not want to go on the land must not be treated as of no account. Encouragement must be given to every kind of soldier- settler, rural or urban. The essential thing is to keep so desir- able a class of emigrants as the soldier-settlers in the country.
Previous page
