OCR Text |
Show claims there are 15,000,000 too many people In Britain today. It claims it would be of benefit to Britain, to thinly Inbabltated British commonwealth areas and to world peace if these surplus people peo-ple were moved to Australia, Canada and parte of Africa. Of course th movement of 15,000,-000 15,000,-000 people is no simple matter. But, as the bureau points out, it Is "much cheaper to move a 140-pound person once than to move some 1400 pounds of food (plus other raw materials) every year to support that person if hs remains re-mains in Britain." The population shift proposal is of -more than passing interest to us in America. If It Is impossible (or Britain to maintain a (air standard of living for her 49,000,000 people and there is no emigration to relieve the pressure-then pressure-then either the British nation will have to be a permanent charge on the United States taxpayer, or we will have to abandon Britain to a steadily worsening worsen-ing economic situation, which means at beat to a greatly weakened status as our ' major ally and at worst to soma form of dictatorship quite possibly Communist. It is Indeed a problem of more than passing interest to America. British Are Urged To Export People The British problem today Is generally gen-erally pictured ia terms of that country's coun-try's argent need (or increasing exports. ex-ports. The exports are naturally assumed as-sumed to be material thingscoal, clothing, machinery, etc. But a recent bulletin published by the. Population Reference bureau makes the Interesting proposal that what Britain needs to sat- port Is not things, but people. Britain, says the bulletin. Is seriously serious-ly cjvercrowded. ' It la the most crowded country in the world except (or Japan. Xvea overcrowded Italy, Germany and India have less than half as many pec-pie pec-pie per square mile of arable land. British population increased from 10.000,000 to 49.000,000 during the last century on the basis of British imperial exploitation and industrial achievement. But the day when the people of Britain caa live off the productivity of aa empire, em-pire, and the day when British goods found a ready market anywhere in the ' world, are gone. British export trade nss actually been oa the decline for mors ' than 80 years. -, The Population. Reference bureea ' f |