The Future of Australia
The debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday on the dis- semination of information about the Empire combines with the arrival of the Duke of Gloucester at Canberra as Governor-General to concentrate attention for the moment on Australia (on which Dominion a very suggestive article appears on a later page of this issue). Never have Australians been more conscious of the bond of unity within the Commonwealth—and that feeling had added to the warmth of their welcome to a member of the Royal Family—but at the same time never before have they realised more acutely the special responsibilities which fall upon them, with New Zealand, in the South-West Pacific. In an article in The Times the Australian Army Minister, Mr. F. M. Forde, has called attention to the immensity of his country's task as a Pacific Power, which has been poignantly brought home to her by the threatened invasion by Japan. Here is a country of 3,000,000 square miles inhabited by a population numbering only 7,300,000. With an effort which has strained her man-power to the utmost she has put 670,000 men in the fighting forces. Mr..Forde insists that steps must be taken to people these vast spaces and build up the population till it reaches a target of 20,000,000 by the end of the century. That is an objective she must aim at. There, is no reason in the nature of things why the country should not provide for a population far in excess of 20,000,000. But Mr. Forde emphasises that 98 per cent. of the people are of British origin, and it is in her own interests and in ours that she should retain her British characteristics. It is possible that much•of the increase may be provided by stimulation of the native birth-rate, and some- thing can be done to promote a steady flow of migrants from this country. But we have no longer, as in the nineteenth century, a large surplus population to export, nor could Australia be expected to welcome any but a good type of migrants. It is a problem which will require close study in this country as well as in Australia.
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