200,000,000 people.  These countries are remarkably healthy for Northern Europeans; there is no reason why they should not be as rich and powerful as the United States are now.  We hope that we have saved the Empire from German cupidity—­for the time; but we cannot tell how long we may be undisturbed.  It would be criminal folly not to make the most of the respite granted us, by peopling our Dominions with our own stock, while yet there is time.  This, however, cannot be done by casual and undirected emigration of the old kind.  We need an Imperial Board of Emigration, the officials of which will work in co-operation with the Governments of our Dominions.  These Governments, it may be presumed, will be anxious, after the war, to strengthen the colonies by increasing their population and developing their resources.  They, like ourselves, have had a severe fright, and know that prompt action is necessary.  Systematic plans of colonisation should be worked out, and emigrants drafted off to the Dominions as work can be found for them.  Young women should be sent out in sufficient numbers to keep the sexes equal.  We know now that our young people who emigrate are by no means lost to the Empire.  The Dominions have shown that in time of need they are able and willing to defend the mother country with their full strength.  Indeed, a young couple who emigrate are likely to be of more value to the Empire than if they had stayed at home; and their chances of happiness are much increased if they find a home in a part of the world where more human beings are wanted.  But without official advice and help emigration is difficult.  Parents do not know where to send their sons, nor what training to give them.  Mistakes are made, money is wasted, and bitter disappointment caused.  All this may be obviated if the Government will take the matter up seriously.  The real issue of this war is whether our great colonies are to continue British; and the question will be decided not only on the field of battle, but by the action of our Government and people after peace is declared.  The next fifty years will decide for all time whether those magnificent and still empty countries are to be the home of great nations speaking our language, carrying on our institutions, and valuing our traditions.  When the future of our Dominions is secure, the part of England as a World-Power will have been played to a successful issue, and we may be content with a position more consonant with the small area of these islands.

I believe, then, that if facilities for migration are given by Government action, it will be not only possible but desirable for the increase in the population of the Empire, taken as a whole, to be maintained during the twentieth century.  It is, of course, possible that chemical discoveries and other scientific improvements may greatly increase the yield of food from the soil, and that in this way the final limit to the population of the earth may be further off than now seems probable.  But within a few centuries, at most, this limit must be reached; and after that we may hope that the world will agree to maintain an equilibrium between births and deaths, that being the most stable and the happiest condition in which human beings can live together.[22]