128 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



needed can be obtained from smaller areas the tendency to abandon the 

 poorer marginal lands and concentrate cultivation in the more fertile 

 areas will be greatly strengthened. These developments are occurring 

 coincidently with the cessation of that rapid increase in numbers which 

 has been a principal fact of human life for the past two centuries. Hence 

 it seems that apart from catastrophic disturbances (such as a great war) 

 present trends of population movements point towards (i) the probable 

 reduction in the population of the, at present, thinly peopled lands, (2) a 

 concentration of a still larger proportion of the world's inhabitants into 

 a few great populous regions, and (3) a further increase in the size and 

 dominance of a few areas of maximum concentration of population, 

 among which the three leaders are those described in Western Europe, in 

 Eastern North America, and in China. 



References. 



The chief bases for this paper are the census reports of many countries ; Year 

 Books of the League of Nations and some of the Dominions ; such works as 

 the Statesman's Year Book ; and map studies. 



Three works used for particular reference are : 

 Haliczer, J. : ' The Population of Europe, 1720, 1820, 1930,' Geography (1934). 

 Levasseur, E. : ' I-a Repartition de la race'humaine,' Bulletin de I'Institut 



international de Statistique (1909). 

 MuKERjEE, R. : ' Migrant Asia.' Published at Rome (1936). 



Previous papers by the writer on kindred topics which have been used in 

 preparing this address include : 



' The Distribution of Population over the Land,' Sociological Review (1925). 



' Centres of World Power,' Sociological Review (1926). 



' The Balance of Urban and Rural Populations,' Geography (1929). 



' The Extent of the Cultivable Land,' Geographical Journal (1930). 



' The Distribution of the Urban Population in Great Britain, 1931,' Geographical 



Journal (1932). 

 'Areas of Concentration of Population in the English-speaking Countries,' 



Population (1934). 

 ' Millionaire Cities,' Mdlanges de G&ographie, Praha (1936). 

 'Whither Population? ' Geography (1937). 



