SETTLEMENT OF EX-SOLDIERS AFTER THE WAR 77 



4) It should be so constituted as to be capable of carrying out any 

 emigration policy on which the home government, in consultation with the 

 oversea governments, may decide. 



The committee recal that the Dominions Royal Commission recom- 

 mended that a central authority should be set up as a department of the 

 home government ; and that a consultative board should be appointed, 

 wliich should include representatives of the oversea dominions and others, 

 and ad\nse the new authority, securing the necessary co-operation between 

 the home and oversea governments with regard to migration. The com- 

 mittee go further than the Royal Commission for they consider that the 

 representatives of the oversea dominions should be connected with the new 

 authority not in an advisory but in an executive capacity. 



The committee propose that actual executive duties should be entrus- 

 ted to a board for whose work a minister of the United Kingdom should 

 be responsible. This minister mu.st appoint the board's chairman, who 

 should be able to devote his whole time to its work. Its other members 

 should include one representative nominated bj' each of the following : 

 the Colonial Ofhce, the War Office, the Board of Trade, the Local Govern- 

 ment Board, the INIinistry of Labour, the governments of Canada, Australia, 

 New Zealand and South Africa, one of the Agents General for the Austra- 

 lian States and one of the Agents General for the Canadian Province. The 

 board should also have five unofficial members of whom two should be 

 women. 



§ 4. The qualifications of eivugrants. 



Emigrants should be qualified first by training or experience and 

 secondh' by the possession of capital. 



The committee lay particular stress on the necessity of providing 

 irainins, for men who have not already had agricultural experience. They 

 should generally receive their training in the place of emigration either on 

 a training farm or similar institution or as labourers on a privately owned^ 

 farm. During the period of training it will be impossible for their wives 

 and families to live with them, and this justifies a postponement of the 

 emigration of many women and children which willlessen the difficulties ot 

 transport. In some cases men who have been settled for a short time in 

 a State or Dominion will be able to obtain reduced passages for their wives 

 and families. 



The committee recommend that if, as seems probable, the emigration 

 overseas even of the men be delayed for a few months after the war by the 

 lack of available transports, some knowledge of agricultural work should 

 be given to them in Great Britain on the farms established or to be establish- 

 ed by *hc Young Men's Christian Association, the Church Army and other 

 public bodies. The committee attach considerable importance to the sug- 

 gestion that the home government should provide soldiers, wh ile they are 

 awaiting demobilization, with instruction in carpentering, building and other 

 crafts. 



