284 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



citizens within the Empire ; next it would guide them to that 

 part of the Empire where, from the strategic point of view, 

 an EngUsh-speaking population is most essential. 



It would see that in the first instance the settlers were 

 placed upon land under such conditions that they would 

 become successful producers of food in the shortest possible 

 time. 



The important fact to seize upon is that the Imperial 

 Government must take the initiative, if there is to be organized 

 migration and settlement. If the required amount of organi- 

 zation is not forthcoming, we shall lose thousands of our best 

 citizens as in the past. 



It is only logical that this central authority should be in the 

 United Kingdom where lies the source of all English migration. 



Loans will have to be advanced to Oversea Governments 

 if settlement on a large scale is to be effected, and it will 

 require an authority with the powers of a ministry if we are 

 to have a real system of migration and settlement. 



FINANCE 



The question of financing settlement is a serious one ; there 

 is abundant precedent for the Imperial Government to assist 

 in finding the necessary money. It did so after the South 

 African War, it did so in the early decades of the nineteenth 

 century when it assisted the Wakefield Schemes of organized 

 settlement in New Zealand and South Australia. 



The need for this assistance is greater now than it was then. 



With the work of placing their own men upon the land 

 most of the Oversea Governments will not have the where- 

 withal to develop large schemes for the settlement of English 

 ex-Service men, without the support and co-operation of the 

 Imperial Government. 



It is said that we are at the end of our financial tether and 

 the outlook is most serious ; however, the fact remains that 

 we are finding large sums of money for reconstruction and for 

 organizing our material wealth, but it is of vastly greater im- 



