14 APRIL 1923, Page 8

THE

ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.

BY EVELYN WRENCH.

MIGRATION problems are being much discussed at the present time, as these notes have frequently shown, and there are many who seem to imagine that the transplanting of half a million or so of the population of the British Isles to the Dominions would afford a panacea for our ills. Be that as it may, there is one aspect of the question, in so far as it affects Canada, which seems to have been overlooked by the British Press, except the Manchester Guardian, but which is receiving much attention in Canada. I refer to the continuous emigration from Canada of many of her best citizens to the United States. The phenomenon is not, of course, a new one. During the past fifty years the United States has drawn many of her most successful immigrants from her northern neighbour. On the other hand, this migration from one part of the North American Continent to another has not always been southward ; in the " boom " years in Canada before the War there was a great trek of farmers from the Western States of the American Union to the Canadian Prairie Provinces. Many of the most successful farmers in Western Canada to-day originally came from the Dakotas, Minnesota and elsewhere. At the moment, however, the tide has set strongly in the other direction, and public opinion in the Dominion is naturally concerned at this constant " wastage " of its human resources.