Assistance to Emigrants: from Britain London, Feb. 24.
The House of Commons to-day passed the second reading of private bill the object of which la to extend the benefit of the Empire Settlement Act.
A. A. Somerville (Conservative) urged the necessity of giving more encouragement to the spirit of adventure of young men of this country. He said that we ought to be sending out to the' Dominions every year 200,000 men instead of the present average of 50,000 to 00,- 000.
Mr. L. S, Amery, the Colonial Secretary, said that the Government endorsed the second reading of the Bill, He declared that in some Dominions there was the idea that were trying to get rid of people swe did not want here in order to let them take their chance of sinking or swimming overseas. Unemploy~ ment was our own domestic problem which we had got to solve on our own lines by finding a true balance of industry and readjusting the occupation of our populations. Wo were not asking the Dominions to help us to solve our own problems, we were doing in the way of ire settlement was in a spirit ing ce-operation of Empire Interests, moving people from one part of the Empire to another. was very desirable to make it quite clear here and in the Dominions that this was a policy of co-opera tion and not a policy of our trying to get the major advantage. The need of the Dominions for more Population was greater than our need of.redveing our population. While we should benefit from it, the covntey to which emigrants. went should benefit even more.
Mr, Amery recalled that the Fmpire settlement Act came into force in 1922. In the first, three years the average number of per-Sons assisted to migrate was 40,000 and in 1026/7 the number was over 64,000. In 1927 there was a alight reduction, as compared with 1926, of 2,000, almost entirely due to teca Aepreasion in New Zealand, Taking all circumstances into account he thought that they had not done 90
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.