are helping new-comers by providing a personal link with them on arrival.

The question of land settlement in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia has this in common with Australia, that we have reached a stage when our most important problem is that of markets. The preference given to Empire-grown tobacco illustrates this point. We have known for years past that Southern Rhodesia could grow excellent tobacco, but we could not, at such a distance, compete with America. The preference has made so much difference that our Government is enabled to embark on a policy of settlement which will provide for many newcomers, and wealthy companies and private individuals are initiating schemes of land settlement which will enable men with little capital to get a start in our country. Both Australia and South Africa produce fruit which is of excellent quality, and could well supplant that of countries who do not buy from Great Britain in return in the same proportion. Apart from marketing and organization at the business end of such industries, we want help in scientific research, in transport, and in many ways which will reduce our risks at the producing end. The Imperial Economic Committee should develop into one of the most important links in the intangible chain which binds the Empire together, since it is its function to study these questions.

it

Controversy rages in Australia over the point of whether it is sound policy to increase secondary industries at this stage, and without being didactic on so wide a question may be said that this can only be done by the introduction of private capital, since State trading has proved far from successful, and that, if and when the market conditions warrant it, these industries will grow without State help, but that the obstinate effort to maintain a basis for wages which has no relation to the value of production is not at the moment encouraging such enterprise. Meanwhile primary production must remain the main avenue, and, despite all difficulties, is providing a healthy life and a competence to hundreds of men and women who, only a few years ago, were city dwellers with no prospects in the old country. Among all those seen in my recent tour I did not meet, even among the most homesick, any who regretted their transplantation or who did not declare themselves to be better off in their new surroundings.

And now for the crux of the question. The heritage is there. Who will enter in? The African colonies (but especially that true white man's country, Southern Rhodesia)

and Australia between them offer a range of opportunities to suit every type of man or woman, and it must be recognized that conditions in Great Britain must deprive many people of the chance of full self-expression or realization. Settlement propaganda as a rule is inclined to be vulgar in its appeal and specious in its promises. It harps on ease and security, minimizes risks, and treats the settler like a child whose powder must be concealed in jam. Let us tell the truth for once.

Whether you belong to the workers who sell their brains or those who sell their strength of arm, you will find in a new country that you have to work harder than you have done before if you mean to make good. To whatever class you belong you will miss a great many accustomed pleasures. All the amusements which fill the eyes or ears, which are a substitute for thinking in some cases and a stimulant to it in others, are harder to come by in a new country, especially in farm life. Home-made joys must take the place of the professional entertainment. The daily round consumes a greater proportion of energy, and material things loom large in the foreground of life. One is less mobile; communications are more difficult and distances much greater. Broadly speaking, one has to be more selfsufficing, more independent, and the quality which makes for success is initiative.

It will be seen that the characteristic herd life of the present day is not the best preparation for pioneering, but I believe that there are, in all classes, large numbers of men and women too who dislike the compulsions of herd life, and would gladly exchange it. The compensation for a man is that he has every hope of becoming the owner of his land and his home, and this is the strongest lure the new country has. To be your own master and work for yourself is a luxury in the old countries, but in the new democracies every man thinks it his right, even if he does not always achieve it. An enlightened migration policy will place this in the foreground, and will concentrate on making it a reality by offering cheap land. Many schemes are spoilt by the fact that the price of land starts a man off with too heavy a load round his neck. Incidentally, while previous agricultural experience may be an advantage, it is not a sine qua non for an overseas settler. I know many successful farmers in Australia and Africa who came from office or factory life.

The keynote of successful pioneering, however, is the word "adventure." It is not the certainty but the glorious

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uncertainty of life in a new country which will attract the right kind of man or woman, and "safety first" is the last slogan which will call them out of the narrow streets to the open road, the high endeavour, the Great Adventure of building up Britains beyond the seas. And for this work we want Britain's best-sure that there are plenty of mute, inglorious Miltons" to take their place if more room were made. No visitor to a young Dominion can fail to be struck by the fact that, while there may be a few public men of outstanding ability, there are many of mediocre talents who occupy important posts simply for lack of competition. There are great opportunities for public service and careers in these new countries, and the race will be to the swift and the battle to the strong, while even those who move in quieter ways will feel that, as human beings, they are making their mark. Character, personality, and grit have a definite value in countries where every man and woman pulls their full weight in the boat.

These are the lands of opportunity in no merely material sense, and every man or woman who chooses this rough road can tread it fortified with the conviction that their lives will not be wasted in crawling round and round a wellworn rut, but that their feet are helping to smooth a track along which the children of our race will pass in time to come to a splendid inheritance.

MRS. TAWSE JOLLIE (Mrs. Archibald Colquhoun),

M.L.A. Southern Rhodesia, Representative of Southern Rhodesia on the Empire Parliamentary Delegation to Australia

CORRESPONDENCE SECTION

"DESERTERS "

TO THE EDITOR OF THE National Review

SIR,—I have read Mrs. Lyttelton Gell's article "Deserters" with interest, and although I share her regret at the alteration and gradual disappearance of country house life, I am afraid that she is flogging a dead horse. She dwells with knowledge and feeling on the services rendered to the community by the large country houses, and during the past they undoubtedly served a great purpose. Institutions, however, of any kind can only exist where they receive general support, and the taste for country house life, whether among the youth who are to inherit the country houses or among the youth whose parents were willing to serve in them, is becoming less every day. The clock cannot be put back. I venture to think that Mrs. Lyttelton Gell does not sufficiently recognize the growing distaste for life in country houses among post-war servants, and on the fact that country houses must cease to be inhabitable without them, and, if for this reason only, I fear that English country houses, like many other pleasant and useful things we have known, are fast becoming matters of past history. It is best to face things as they are. Yours faithfully,

ARRAN

[THIS important pronouncement, which stands out among the City utterances of 1927, is discussed in Mr. Arthur Kitson's article and commented on in Episodes of the Month.]

AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND BRITISH DEPRESSION *

THE NEED FOR A MONETARY INQUIRY.

By the Right Hon. R. McKENNA.

THE task I am setting myself to-day is by no means an easy one. I propose if I can to give some answer, partial though it may be, to the question: Why is it that for the past six years we have suffered from trade depression and unemployment of almost unparalleled severity, while America has enjoyed great and increasing prosperity? No apology is needed for discussing on the present occasion what is primarily a trade problem. Banking prosperity is vitally interwoven with the welfare of the community as a whole. We are bound to be concerned with all the causes which make for good or bad trade, and it must be our first endeavour to discover what these causes are and if possible to remedy any defects. In the present case I cannot escape the conclusion that the monetary element has been of deep importance, and though I do not minimize the effect of other influences, it is to this in particular that I wish to direct your attention.

* Speech delivered at the Ordinary General Meeting of shareholders of the Midland Bank Limited held on January 28, 1927.

Seven years ago we were living in a riot of public and private expenditure. But it was not in England alone that inflation was rampant. The whole world was more or less affected, including even the United States, which, except for some time towards the close of the war,* had never departed from the basic principles of a full gold standard. In that country as here an inevitable period of business liquidation followed the post-war boom, and down to the late summer of 1921 conditions in the two countries were very similar. From that time onwards, however, their paths have been far apart. With occasional and comparatively brief intervals, the United States, judged by the tests of production, employment, wages and profits, has enjoyed exceptional prosperity. In England, on the other hand, a large portion of our population has been continuously unemployed, and the pre-war standard of production, although there have been noticeable fluctuations, has at no time been recovered.

The similarity of trade conditions in England and America in the fist three years after the armistice, contrasted with the subsequent dissimilarity, points to the occurrence of some vital change in 1921 capable of producing or at any rate markedly contributing to these different results. Monetary conditions exercise such an all-pervading influence that in investigating a matter of this kind we are forced to turn our attention to them; and as we find that from 1921 onwards there was a wide divergence between English and American monetary policy, we have in this fact at least a partial explanation of the phenomenon.

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MONEY AND THE VOLUME OF TRADE.

66

The importance of the place occupied by money in modern production and trade is well understood. Bank credit facilitates every branch of production. Goods are raised from the soil, manufactured, carried and marketed with the assistance of credit at every stage. To the borrower the price paid for accommodation is not so vital, except in extreme cases, as the adequacy of the supply. An increase of credit gives rise to a greater demand for commodities, stimulates trade and brings more people into employment. It may do even more than this. As a larger volume of business enables overhead charges to be more widely spread, an addition to the total of money may reduce the cost of manufacture. I say may" and not must because there is another side to the picture. The immediate tendency of an increase in the quantity of money is to harden prices, and if the ensuing greater production does not fully counterbalance the larger volume of money, prices will remain at the higher level and the cost of production may on balance be increased. Should the growth of production keep pace with the increase in the quantity of money, thus preventing anything more than a transitory rise in the price level, then there is no inflation. If there is no such correspondence in movement, then the expansion of money constitutes inflation, and should the process be continued, the value of our currency both at home and abroad will decline.

By contrast, a reduction in the quantity of money has a restrictive influence on trade. With a reduced total of money available for spending there is a diminished demand for commodities, prices at once tend downwards, and shopkeepers, merchants and manufacturers curtail their orders. The result is depression and unemployment. Trade will right itself if the cost of production can be lowered, a movement which involves a fall in wage rates proportionate to the drop in the price level. But we know from experience that this does not readily occur. It is a long and difficult process to adjust labour costs to a decline in prices, and though hard economic necessity may ultimately force

* Gold exports were prohibited, except under licence, from Sept. 7, 1917, to June 30, 1919.