Having dealt with the waste of male life in infancy, in childhood and in
war, we must pass on to a totally different factor of our problem, and
that is the emigration to our colonies and elsewhere of a greatly
disproportionate number of men. One does not assert for a moment that
the men should not go, but merely that if they do, so should women also.
As everyone knows they go for many reasons and purposes. These are
largely industrial and imperial. The Civil Service claims a large
number. These bachelors go in the cause of Empire, whether as actual
servants of the State or in the interests of commerce. They are largely
picked men, capable of discipline and initiative and of withstanding
hardships; and also in large degree intellectually able. It is certainly
not good for them to be alone, and it is worse for the women whom they
leave behind. All this may seem right and the only practicable thing for
the day, but it is fundamentally wrong because it is wrong for the
morrow.
If other needs were not so pressing, one might well devote an entire
volume, not inappropriately in these days of fiscal controversy, to the
question of vital imports and exports. Year after year passes, and
politicians in Great Britain grow more and more voracious and, if
possible, less and less veracious on the subject of what they
misunderstand by imports and exports. The subject is really one for
knowledge, not for politicians.
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