been reached.1 The official figures for the four years 1920-3 inclusive were as follows:

There were a number of agreements between the Australian and the British Governments for the encouragement of British settlement on the land in Australia; and in January 1924 a conference between the Australian Federal and State authorities was held in Melbourne 'for the purpose of unifying and extending the arrangements for settlers, particularly from Great Britain'.5 Up to that date the great majority of immigrants to Australia had come from the British Isles, though the annual contingent of Italians was relatively important during the three years 1921 to 1923, during which it averaged 1,968. The beginnings of a differential restriction policy were made by the introduction of a quota system for Jugoslav, Greek, and Albanian nationals, not more than 100 immigrants of each of these nationalities being permitted to land in Australia in any one month. Armenians, Palestinians, and Syrians, as well as ex-enemy aliens and Russians, were excluded altogether-subject to the reference of special cases to the Commonwealth Minister for Home and Territories for his consideration and decision.

(iv) The Internal Colonization of France.

In the preceding section, some account has been given of the effect of the United States Restriction Acts in diverting the stream

1 See the Australian Parliamentary Paper, The Immigration Act 1901-20 (Consolidation Act) (c. 3045), assented to on the 2nd December, 1920.

2 Supplied by the courtesy of the Official Secretary, Australia House, London. See also The Times, 8th January, 1924, which gives the number of immigrants who entered Australia in 1920 as 9,000, and the number in 1923 as 26,500.

3

Excluding 11,546 returned troops and nurses.

4 Including former residents in Australia returning from visits abroad, and also persons admitted temporarily and not for permanent settlement. 5 See The Times, 8th January, 1924.

See Le Statistiche dell' Emigrazione Italiana, Table XI.

7 The exclusion of ex-enemy aliens was enacted for a period of five years from the coming into force of the Consolidation Act of 1920. This exclusion notwithstanding, German business men wishing to visit Australia for the purpose of transacting business might be granted authority, by the Commonwealth High Commissioner in London, to proceed to Australia for a limited period, not exceeding six months.

overseas.

of European emigrants from the United States to other countries A further effect of the same legislation was to diminish the emigration from Europe to the overseas countries as a whole and relatively to increase the movement of population from one European country to another.

Here, again, the best index is given by the Italian emigration figures. During the five years 1910 to 1914, out of an average annual total of 649,703 Italian emigrants, 369,605 on the average had gone to American countries and 269,965 to countries in Europe. On the other hand, during the three years 1921 to 1923, out of an average annual total of 290,839, as many as 143,377 went to European countries and only 139,823 to the American Continent. Thus the relative volumes of the two main streams were reversed, but the full measure of the change only becomes apparent after an analysis of the different branches into which the European stream was divided. During the years 1910 to 1914, out of the average annual total of 269,965 emigrants from Italy to other countries in Europe, 82,060 on the average had gone to Switzerland, 66,242 to Germany, 31,769 to Austria, 6,850 to Hungary, 3,637 to the British Isles, 69,995 to France, and 2,785 to Belgium and Luxembourg. On the other hand, during the three years 1921 to 1923, out of the average annual total of 143,377 emigrants from Italy to other countries in Europe, only 8,330 on the average went to Switzerland, 1,495 to Germany, 4,550 to Austria, 383 to Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and 1,464 to the British Isles, whereas 104,076 went to France and 15,707 to Belgium and Luxembourg. In other words, the average annual total of Italian emigrants to European countries had fallen to almost half the pre-war figures and the contingents to all but two countries had dwindled to a fraction of their former strength, and yet the contingents to France, Belgium, and Luxembourg had increased not only relatively but absolutely— that to France by nearly 50 per cent. and that to Belgium and Luxembourg by nearly 600 per cent. Nor was this increase of immigration into France from Italy an isolated phenomenon. The immigration from Poland was even more remarkable. In June 1924 it was reported that there were 400,000 Poles employed in the devastated areas of France, partly as unskilled labourers engaged in the work of reconstruction, but principally as miners. Indeed, more than 20 per cent. of the total wages bill for miners in France at this time was apparently being paid out to miners of Polish nationality. There were also 50,000 Poles working on the land, and

1

an unspecified number employed in factories. These figures 1 are astonishing when it is remembered that there was practically no immigration into France from Poland before the War. On the 30th June, 1924, The Times published the following report from its correspondent in Paris :

There are to-day 2,000,000 foreigners on French soil, representing some 32 different nationalities. Their number is computed to be increasing by 600,000 to 700,000 a year, which is a figure considerably in excess of the annual growth of the French population. Yet there is no unemployment in the towns, and the agricultural districts are in urgent need of manual labour for the cultivation of the land.

The writer of the present survey received first-hand confirmation of the last statement of this report in February 1925 from the owner of an agricultural estate in Normandy, who told him that he was finding skilled artisans almost impossible to obtain; that he would be unable to cultivate his home farm without the assistance of Polish and Czechoslovak labour; and that his tenant farmers were in the same position. This meant that France had become one of the principal focuses of immigration in the world, and when the Conference on Emigration which met at Rome in May 1924 2 organized its committees, the French delegates duly took their place as representatives of a 'country of immigration', alongside of their colleagues from the United States and Argentina.3

This influx of European labour into France during the six years immediately following the War succeeded the influx of Oriental labour which had been so striking a phenomenon of the War period, and both movements were partly due to temporary conditions. During the War, the man-power of France had been absorbed by the army; immediately after the War, the pressing task of reconstructing the devastated areas created an abnormal demand on the French labour market. Had there been no other cause of a more permanent nature to account for the immigration into France. during these years, it would hardly have been a fact of historical importance. Actually, however, such a cause was at work in the decline of the birth-rate, which, although sharply accentuated by the War, had set in before the War began and showed little sign of abating after it was over. This falling birth-rate, in combination. with a normal death-rate which was relatively high compared with that of contemporary England and Wales and with the abnormal

1 The above figures are taken from L'Europe Nouvelle, 14th June, 1924. 2 See Section (v), pp. 123-7, below.

3 See the Corriere della Sera, 17th May, 1924.

casualties of the War, had brought the population of France down from 41,476,272 in 1913 to 39,209,518 in 1921;1 and, if this general fact was grave, the detailed study of depopulation in particular rural districts gave results which were, if possible, more alarming.2 It will be seen that in France, at this time, the future of the foreign immigrants was a question of supreme national importance. Were these immigrants to re-emigrate or to remain permanently in the country, and, if they remained, would it be possible to assimilate them? Evidently this question could only be answered in the light of some years' experience, and in the meantime the French Government took a statesmanlike course in arranging that the influx of European labour, as to the necessity of which, during the reconstruction period, there could be no dispute, should take place under the best possible conditions. Internal legislation and administrative action was, therefore, supplemented by the negotiation of diplomatic agreements with the Governments of the principal countries from which the immigrants were being drawn. These instruments were the Franco-Polish Emigration and Immigration Convention of the 7th September, 1919; the Franco-Italian Convention of the 30th September, 1919; and the Franco-Czechoslovak Convention of the 20th March, 1920, all of which were based on the same principles.1 The Franco-Polish Convention 5 was concluded in order to

3

1 See The Times, 30th June, 1924.

2 See a statement, made at the first meeting of the Society for Foreigners in France, by M. de Monzie, Senator for the Department of the Lot (reported in The Manchester Guardian, 23rd February, 1924); and another statement, made at a meeting of the French Society of Political Economy, by M. Joseph Barthélemy, regarding the Departments of Gers, Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, and Landes (reported in The Times, 20th November, 1924).

3 In Emigration and Immigration, p. 311, the following decrees are cited for the period between the beginning of the War and the 31st August, 1922: Decree of 2 April, 1917, concerning foreign workers.

Interministerial Decrees of 5 and 25 August, 1919, concerning the control of immigration.

Interministerial Decree of 18 July, 1920, establishing a Permanent Immigration Commission.

Circular of the Minister of Agriculture dated 13 September, 1920, addressed to the Presidents of Departmental Offices of Agriculture concerning the operation of the Agricultural Labour Service.

Decree of 18 November, 1920, concerning foreign workers.

Bill introduced by M. Edmond de Warren and others concerning the establishment of an Immigration Office (Chamber of Deputies, 1921).

Decree of 6 June, 1922, superseding Decree of 18 November, 1920.

4 See an article by B. Nogaro in La Revue Politique et Parlementaire, Paris, 10th October, 1920.

5 See the précis in Emigration and Immigration, pp. 338-41. This instrument was supplemented by a second convention signed on the 14th October,

guarantee all administrative facilities to nationals of each of the two countries before their emigration to the other country and in regard to their repatriation, and in order to authorize the recruiting of bodies of workers in one of the two countries for the benefit of undertakings situated in the other country. The essential principles laid down by the convention were the following:

(1) Explicit provision for complete equality of treatment for immigrant workers and nationals in regard to conditions of labour, wages, protection, accidents, &c.

(2) Freedom of immigration and emigration from one country to the other, subject to justifiable restrictions due to the conditions of the labour market or to sanitary laws.

(3) Annual determination of the number and category of workers who might be recruited collectively; the institution for this purpose of a commission meeting alternately at Paris and at Warsaw at least once a year, to which each of the two Governments must submit the opinions of a consultative committee comprising delegates of the departments concerned and representatives of employers and workers.

(4) The recruiting of bodies of workers to be effected exclusively through the public employment exchanges, with the addition of an official commission or of representatives of employers charged with the conduct of the medical examination or the examination of workers as to their capacity before their departure.

(5) The placing of workers who had a contract of employment to be subject to the proviso that this contract should be in conformity with the principles established by the convention. . . .

The labour contracts proposed by the employers and the applications for workers presented by them were to be in conformity with model contracts and model applications drafted by agreement between the two countries. A copy of the demand was to be submitted for the visa of the competent department of the country in which the workers were to be employed and transmitted by the said department to the corresponding department of the country in which the workers were being recruited. The visa was not to be given unless the conditions of the contract were in conformity with the principles of the convention and unless proper provision could be made for the housing and feeding of the workers and also unless the demand for labour justified the recruiting of such foreign labour. The regulation of the volume of migration according to the state of the labour market was provided for as follows:

If the condition of the labour market at certain times, in certain areas, and in certain trades, renders it impossible to find employment for immigrants who come separately and on their own initiative to seek work, the Government concerned shall at once warn the other Govern