BRITISH WOMEN FOR GREATER BRITAIN.
(TO T It EDITOR 0 TH " SP ROTATOR.' ] .
SIR,-If the British Empire is to persist for an indefinite period, there must be a change from the policy of laissez-faire and the lack of foresight which are the ruling principles of to-day. Empire-building is surely not a task to be guided by accident or the exigencies of the moment, but should be the outcome of deliberate organisation, and a prescient anticipation of the future. If, for instance, we fall behind the other great world- Powers in the race for population, we shall find ourselves in twenty or thirty years relegated to the rank of a second-class Power such as France is rapidly becoming at the present time. Germany, Russia, the United States, and Japan will all have left us hopelessly in the rear. This, in its turn, will mean inability to compete with these nations in the matter of armaments, and then the end of the British Empire will not be far away. To prevent, if possible, this disaster, it should be the aim of British statesmen to consider how we can keep pace with our rivals, and one of their first political maxims should be,—" Keep all emigrating Britons under the Flag." Let them discourage in every way the permanent settlement of British subjects in the United States, in the South American Republics, and elsewhere, and, if they will leave the Mother-country, offer every inducement for them to go to one or other of the great daughter-States.
But there is another matter of superlative importance which has not attracted the attention it deserves. It is the effect which the inequality of sex distribution is having on the birth-rate of the Empire. In the United Kingdom there are at least a million more females than males, while in this part of Greater Britain which I know—Australia—there are nearly two hundred and fifty thousand more males than females, and this disproportion is increasing, because the majority of the immigrants coming here are young men. This means that there are to-day in the Motherland, and will be in the future, thousands of women doomed to celibacy, not through any desire of their own, but from the impossibility of obtaining husbands, while in Australia they might be following their natural destiny as wives and mothers. I ask,—Would it not be true Empire-building to give these "odd women" an opportunity of mating with their natural partners ? And as it is certain that the men cannot go to the women, it should be the duty of Empire-builders to endeavour to send the women who are willing to leave the Mother-country to lands where husbands and homes are awaiting them. Australia and New Zealand could take at least twenty-five thousand girls and women annually for many years to come, offering them work first as domestic servants, lady helps, workers on farms, (tc., until they settled down to their natural place in life. There are openings, too, for women with a little capital to take up fruit-growing, poultry-farming, and even dairying, which last is a sure and profitable means of livelihood. Of course, I am aware that the reply may be made: If Australia wants female immigrants, let her offer free passages and other inducements to them, and she will get as many as she desires. I admit that this is true, but it does not cover the whole of the case. While Australia gains by every desirable immigrant she obtains from the Mother-country, it is also to the interest of Great Britain that her daughters should go there, and not to some alien land. A strong Australia will maintain British prestige in the Pacific, and do something to preserve the Empire's hold in India. Even as I write an Australian Volunteer regiment has offered to proceed to Bombay to help in upholding law and order there, and an Australian army corps may yet be found on the North-Western Frontier of India. For these reasons, the Imperial authorities might well consider the possibility of co- operating with the Commonwealth Government in organising a regular emigration of their too numerous women to Australia, and of sharing in the heavy expenditure required. It would be a valuable investment from every point of view. In the meantime, the voluntary organisation that I represent is willing to give information about opportunities in Australia to all who write to us at the office of the Immigration League, Moore Street, Sydney, Australia.—I am, Sir, &c.,.
RICHARD ARTHUR, M.D.,
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