[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]

Sin,—" Emigration would, of course, hasten a decline," says Dr. G. F. McCleary, when writing on the Population Problem in The Spectator of 'January 8th. I am not so sure —especially if we take an Enipire view of the question.

Dr. McCleary also asks : " Can the flow (of migrants)* continue ? " and—quoting the Chancellor of the Exchequer seems to express doubt as to the Homeland hieing able to supply the demand from the outposts of the Empire for more citizens of the right breed.

References to birth-rates and death-fates prompt 'ine to suggest that a further study of the comparative vital statisiies of the British Isles might be helpful: Let me draw attention to two aspects. The male child born in 1931 has an expecta- tion of life of 15.3 years more than a child born fifty years earlier (the female child hai 16.3 years) ; but 'at sixty-five years of age the increased expectation of life of the Male is only increased by 0.8 year and the female by 1.6 year.

I doubt very 'much if the suggestion that some provision for the reception of unwanted babies,- submitted by Dr.

Nortnan Haire, would do anything to arrest the "imminent n I catastrophic decline in the population of this country,'; for I 'think it will be found that where such provision does exist that the decline of population is- at a greater rate than in the British Isles.

Admittedly there are factors in the populathin prObleM which give' cause for earnest heart-searching by our Empire

statesmen so far as the white population of the British Empire is concerned. There are,- too, I venture to suggest, factors in the future which are beyond the range of present-day prognosticators.

For instance, there are in the British' Isles today '(in round figures) one million women of chil&bearing age in excess of

the male population, and that obviously means that one aspect of the decline (the continuing fall in numbers of childLbearing women) of which we hear a good deal need not cause much concern.

This maldistribution of the population, however, is not healthy, spiritually, economically or physically, and,. inter

alia, it means that tens of thousands of those women who feel that the destiny of woman is motherhood are being denied any opportunity for a legitimate expression of their life. Incidentally, I think that the moral effect of this pressure is bad alike on men and women.

Then, in regard to the problem of our Empire, I cannot forget that in the State of Queensland, with a history of ninety years and a population of less than one million, there is an excess of 47,000 males over females.

The late, Mr. Rudyard Kipling in a letter to me on the question of Empire Migration and Settlement said " There is a material Calyinism,which would limit worldly prosperity-to u.few of the electors-just as there is a,spiritual

Calvin isni which eonfrnes.Salyation to.a few elect. . , There is a,type..of.lankiils as there is of family, which only needs to be taken out of England to adapt itself to a new land, as trout

take to a new brook ; but there are not very many of them, and in England they sometimes live on the outskirts of good reputation—a quick, acquisitiVe, not too truthful' 'breed, enormously satisfied with themselves. But they are a splendid cross on slower blood in the second generation. . . : Of course the cry would go up at once : ' You are draining England of its best blood ' ; but isn't there something to be said for the idea of drafting out the First Eleven and so giving the Second Eleven a chance."

Just as new occasions teach new duties, so changing condi- tions would seem to lead to alterations in views held on certain subjects. In regard to the movement of population, for instance, it was for long generally supposed that bad trade in the Homeland was good for emigration ; then gradu- ally an entirely contrary view came to be held, and this at the moment seems to prevail in official circles.

For my own part I am inclined to think that the full force of the impact of the social services in the Homeland has not yet been realised in the matter of Empire Migration and Settlement.

With Mr. Kipling I hold that : - There never was an Empire that offered such oppor- tunities to all men as ours ; and I sometimes think that there never was an Empire whose people took less advantage of its opportunities."—Yours faithfully,