BRITAIN'S SURPLUS POPULATION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Mr. T. P. Walker, whose letter appears in your issue of October 31st, in referring to Mr. Gabriel Wells' suggestion of transferring our surplus population to Canada in communities, seems to think the success of the scheme depends chiefly on the selection of a leader. I venture to think the selection of the emigrants is of at least equal importance. British settlers are not being invited. Yet I have before me a cutting from a Winnipeg newspaper stating that from 20,000 to 30,000 Doukhobors are about to leave Europe and settle in Canada. The organizer of this movement guarantees that these people shall not become a public charge. He knows he can find work for them.
For many years it has been left to the Salvation Army. Dr. Barnardo's Homes, the Waifs and Strays Society, and other similar institutions to take a leading part in organizing emigration from this country to Canada. All honour to them: But we have given the Canadians the impression that we regard their country as a dumping ground for the people we want to get rid of. The story of the Canadian farmer who says " No Englishmen need apply " when advertizing for a farm hand is a true story. I have argued the point with farmers in Western Canada, and as the result of this and other experiences have come to the conclusion that there is a real danger that we may lose Canada as we lost the States, and for the same reason, namely, that our people at home are, for the most part, simply incapable of " thinking imperially " much more of acting so. In England we have about seven hundred and eighty people to the square mile. In Canada they have less than three ; or, making allowance for the northern part, supposed to be uninhabitable, five to the square mile. Canada is very nearly as large as Europe and has natural resources which are believed to be equal to those of Europe. Yet the population of Canada is only slightly in excess of that of Greater London. When Englishmen emigrated to Canada fifty years ago they settled chiefly in Ontario, where they had to spend two or three years clearing forest land before they could grow any crops.worth mentioning. Now that the Western Prairies are opened up by a network of railways there are millions of acres of virgin soil ready for the plough. Having spent three and half years on the Canadian wheatbelt I am certain that if a group of twenty thousand Russians can go out and thrive, groups of twenty thousand Englishmen could do likewise ; but they must be workers, and there must be a process of selection.—I
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