PUBLIC SCHOOL BOYS AND THE EMPIRE.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sra,—As the Imperial Conference will soon be dealing with migration, may I put in a plea to raise it to a higher plane and to make it worth consideration as a career for boys from our Public Schools and Secondary Schools ? At present many of them are suffering at the outset of their careers through the commercial depression, but no encouragement is offered to them to migrate. They have not the advantages of boys from Dr. Barnardo's Homes and the Church Army, who are shepherded on their voyage, met and comfortably housed on arrival, and well cared for afterwards. They can simply join the crowd awaiting enrolment at the London Offices of the Dominions and take " pot luck," sacrificing in the process all the advantages they have derived from school.
In war or peace, what a fine type is the Public School boy —popular among his fellows, a player of the game, ever ready to take things as they come ! There seems to be no hope of preference for him unless he has money. He gets no credit for the better capital which is his by a good education and up-bringing. Is not too much stress laid on the money qualification, particularly when it is remembered that a boy with money is rather inclined to waste his time in sport ? Let me give some examples. In the 'sixties and 'seventies many Old Blues (Christ's Hospital boys) were prospering in Australia, and some of them were giving public service in leading positions. There were so many that they formed themselves into a " Victorian Society of Blues." All of them went out without money.
In the City one finds that wise men at the head of big businesses ignore the money bait and select their young men solely on merit ; and they find it pays. I once asked a land agent what he looked for in a new tenant for a farm ? He replied : (1) ability and will to farm ; (2) respectability and responsibility ; (3) capital. That was his order of merit, and his success proved that he was right. If migration is to become dignified as a career, let us get away from the present makeshift of trying thereby to relieve chronic unem- ployment. Those who migrate for this reason start with discontent and often end in failure. Let us rather take the boy while at school, arouse his interest in Dominion life, and, where possible, give him a practical insight into farming. We need give no more than a little practice, and, so that he may know the worst, let him have some of it in the mud of winter. If he still likes the life and is fitted. for it, there will be no fear for him when he arrives overseas, but he must be cared for and given a good start. Parents are entitled to be assured of this, else they will quite naturally oppose the migration of their sons.
Surely some public-spirited men can meet some of our
Headmasters and devise a scheme to achieve this purpose. If they can go further and form a fund or company to provide loans or gifts of money for those who have none, so much the better, particularly as such help may result in further benefit being obtainable under the financial provi- sions of the Empire Settlement Act. One would not aim at big things but proceed, perhaps, on the lines of the 1820 Settlers' Association of South Africa. Christ's Hospital has been fortunate in finding a good home for some of her sons with a well-to-do farmer in New Zealand, where they are being well treated and making good progress. I hear the
sequel is shortly to be that their mothers and sisters will join them and resume the family life. If those who advocate the migration of girls will allow the boys to go first and work for their homes, the girls will naturally follow as in this case.
At all events what is really wanted is to let the Dominions have a good sprinkling of our best boys and girls to bring us closer together in sentiment and in trade, and to be the Empire's stronghold in the anxious years to come. May I add that, although I write from Christ's Hospital with some little knowledge of my subject, the views which I have ventured to express are my own and do not commit my
Clerk of Christ's Hospital,
26 Great Tower Street, London, E.C. 3.
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