A lecture by Captain F. Younghusband was read at the
Westminster Town Hall on Tuesday, favouring the emigra- tion of natives of India into British tropical Africa. The main argument put forward was the enormous growth of the Indian population, and the consequent necessity for finding it fresh fields in which it could acquire land. The Indians make excellent settlers, and Captain Younghusband would therefore have the Government encourage their emigration to Africa. The proposal is a convenient one, because Indian peasants are such good taxpayers, but we cannot say that we are strongly attracted by it. We shall train the Africans much better if we are not always neglecting them for their more manageable rivals. As for the over-population of India, there are Assam and Burmah still to be filled up, and no over-sea emigration will make much impression upon those swarming millions. We greatly distrust, moreover, that theory of population multiplying until the mites eat up the whole of the cheese. We have been hearing of it for the last forty years, and no doubt it ought logically to be true, but the apprehended danger has never arrived anywhere yet. We know a good deal of the forces of Nature, but nothing of the forces Nature may have in reserve. The English in multiplying eightfold since Elizabeth's time have not eaten up England.
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