of population as is the centre of the Empire. Indeed, we shall see that for certain parts of the Empire an increase of population is a sine qua non of existence. The good feeling no less than the good sense of our kindred across the seas will incline them to come to an agreement with the mother-country when once she has enunciated a clear and statesmanlike policy. If there has been a tendency in the past on the part of colonists to keep the good things of the Empire to themselves and to improve colonial stocks at the expense of the parent race, it cannot be said that they have acted more selfishly than is the custom of mankind. A careful consideration of future needs in the light of recent events will convince them that their policy hitherto has run counter to their own advantage.

How does Canada regard the British Empire of the future? Her outlook does not differ in principle from that of Great Britain. She looks upon it as a confederacy of states, holding the same ideals; state helping state to realise those ideals, with hands stretched forth in times of conflict or distress. She wishes that there should be union between the scattered parts, and strength in union. She looks forward, as her dowry of nature's giving entitles her, to becoming in time the most populous, the most wealthy, and therefore the leading state, in the family of nations of which Great Britain is at present the chief.

This aspiration she can only hope to fulfil by receiving a large accession of men of British nationality. The incoming of Americans, which has been such a noticeable feature of recent years, unless balanced by a large influx of British blood, would tend to endanger her independence of her southern neighbour. The flooding of the country with non-British European elements might make her a second less important United States, but could hardly justify her expectation of imperial hegemony. She needs men to develop her resources; she has every reason to welcome a scheme which would induce a more stable social order in Great Britain; she is alive to the necessity of peopling the outposts of the Empire against the great struggle which is even now beginning to darken the horizon-the struggle of the West with the East.

When we turn to the other great self-governing colonies it becomes apparent that immigration is not merely a desideratum; it is a matter of extreme urgency if they are to remain British. Among the many changes which have been effected, or revealed to the world, by the great war, none is more portentous than the alteration in the position of the white races in relation to the rest of the world. Signs of unmistakable import are multiplying which show that it will soon become impossible for the white peoples to hold the coloured peoples in a position of tutelage or vassalage except to a limited extent and for a brief period. The attitude of the Japanese at Paris was perhaps the most arresting of all these signs. Throughout the British Empire the subject races show symptoms of chronic unrest due to the emergence of ideas hostile to any assumption of racial superiority. This world-movement-for it is nothing less-holds a deep significance for the British Empire. Nor does it concern only the status of the coloured races within that Empire; it is of far greater scope, for it affects the holdings, throughout the world, of the European and North-American peoples.

A League of Nations seems, almost of necessity, to imply some sort of equality amongst the nations composing it. But, if the equality of nations be admitted, it becomes extremely difficult to justify the admission of some nations to certain portions of the world and the exclusion of others. That is the crux of the whole matter. At the Peace Conference the cloud seemed no bigger than a man's hand, but it is likely to overshadow the heavens. The equality of races as a theory is open to easy attack. Every one who has had prolonged dealings with distinct peoples is aware that they are unequal, in whatever way the measure is applied. So also are men, but it has long been found necessary to treat them on a footing of equality. It was not as an abstract proposition that the principle of racial equality was brought forward at the Peace Conference; it was raised with the clear practical intention of establishing the right of the yellow or black man to go where the white man goes and to vote when the white man votes. Upon these two claims hang the destinies of mankind; the history of continents will depend upon the response of the white

peoples. South Africa, Australia, South and Central America are all involved. The boundaries of the races of the world and the extent to which these races may intermingle are not matters which have been settled for all time. They have been provisionally settled by the white races in their own interest. But that the nations of Europe and their descendants should hold in perpetuity, for their exclusive profit, all the continental areas which have been discovered since the 15th century is agreeable neither to justice nor to probability. The numbers, the intelligence, the crowded condition of the Asiatics, and their future strength also, cry out against such a conclusion.

The Asiatic demands not merely to be recognised as an equal; he demands a share in the new lands of the world. He seeks an outlet for his increasing millions. He bitterly resents exclusion from some of the fairest regions of the earth. He knows that he could employ many of these lands to better advantage than does the white man, and he asks for the opportunity of doing so. Who is bold enough, when so reasonable a request is preferred, as it will be, by one half of the human race, to say that it will not be granted? Will a League of Nations stand in the way? Can the British Empire oppose it? Sooner or later this claim must be allowed. In South or Middle Africa, in Australia or in South America, in some or in all of these regions, room must be found for the crowded myriads of Asia.

This readjustment will necessarily follow the lines of least resistance. The region of greatest resistance will be North America; and that continent may be considered to have been definitely won for the white man. The fact that Africa and South America lie principally within the tropics, and the presence of considerable aboriginal or imported non-Aryan stocks, mark out these continents as territories fit for occupation by the oriental. British East Africa and the neighbouring tropical lands will probably be the first to be opened to unrestricted Hindu colonisation. The distance from India is comparatively small; the climate and soil are in every way congenial. A demand for the recognition of the rights of India in this quarter has already been put forward by the late Mr Gokhale. The unlocking of this

door will signalise the formal entry of the Asiatic into the field of colonisation. It will abolish the anomaly that the numerically most important member of the Empire should be denied free access to all its great dominions. The penetration of South America by the oriental will not be so simple a matter; but it should be possible to provide by peaceful negotiation for the successive settlement of Japanese and Chinese in suitable areas. Indeed, the former race has hitherto been welcomed, though not the latter. Spaniards and Portuguese have never shown the antipathy to miscegenation which distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon. The white races will still retain the southern portion of the continent, which they are rapidly developing and which is well adapted to their requirements.

It is by this test of development that peoples and lands will be judged. It is not enough to have discovered a country; it is not enough, as a Japanese naval officer has recently observed, to wave a flag over it; it must be developed-that is to say, the land must be made to yield its full quota in production for the good of mankind. No other plea will be considered of sufficient validity to justify the exclusion of those who could secure its complete utilisation. The tools to those who can use them.

These things are full of meaning for the British Empire. South Africa could only have been preserved as a British colony in any real sense by peopling the uplands with millions of our country-men; by tilling the land and by performing all other manual operations by white labour, by relegating the blacks to warmer localities, and by enforcing a more rigid exclusion of the Hindu. The land is there, and the climate; we in England have the men who could be employed to vastly better purpose on the wide veldt than in factories at home. But so radical a violation of the traditional laissez aller policy in the matter of colonisation was not to be expected; the temporary advantages of his position with respect to the Kaffir appeal to the SouthAfrican colonist more than the fate of his remote descendants; it would have taxed the genius of a Rhodes to overcome such obstacles. The greater part of Africa is destined to be non-European; the white communities, reduced to five or three or two per cent. through a

relatively small fertility, will be surrounded and engulphed by a sea of blacks; future policies will be determined by the coloured vote. Unless by some miracle a complete reversal of methods should take place, South Africa, as the home of a British people in the coming centuries, may be wiped off the slate.

It is far otherwise when we turn to Australasia. There is no disposition in that quarter to acquiesce in the presence of incompatible races. The final consequences of admitting Asiatics-loss of numerical superiority for the white, loss of political predominance, danger of ultimate absorption or expulsion--are clearly recognised. The Australians know that for them and theirs the matter is absolutely vital. No sacrifice, in their view, is too great to keep the continent safe from the despised but dreaded oriental. In this attitude they can surely command our sympathy. Let us imagine for a moment how we in England should feel if we were exposed to a like invasion of aliens, ready to supplant us at every turn, undercutting us in every branch of trade and production, bringing in their own languages, religions, customs, and interests, threatening by mere weight of numbers to turn England into China, let us say. Precisely thus do the Australians regard the menace of the Asiatic; and we are bound to afford them whatever help we may.

But, while the Australians have clearly grasped the consequences of admitting the oriental, the majority of them have not yet measured the danger of excluding him. We ourselves know how easy it is for a nation to be lulled into a false sense of security. The leaders are aware of the deadly peril that threatens Australia, but the mass of the people are still blind. This blindness has to be reckoned with; it will be one of the first of duties for statesmen in Australia to expose the situation in all its gravity, and to prepare public opinion for the steps which must be taken to remedy it. It may be doubted whether even the leaders have fairly gauged the issues in their entirety. The man of practical affairs is unfitted by his profession to look far ahead.

Australia is founding her hopes for the future on two bases. The one has been her sure defence in the past, the British navy. She deems that it will be supported,