A Home For Jews

Interest in New Guinea Plan

THE suggestion that suitable lands in the Pacific territories should be made available for settlement by Jewish people driven out of Europe, made in the December issue of the is receiving consideration.

The proposals most favoured are those relating to the Central Tablelands of New Guinea, and those relating to the southern islands of the New Hebrides.

The plan to make Central New Guinea available for European settle ment has many things to recommend it.

It is “white man’s country”, lying most ly 5,000 to 7,000 ft. above sea-level; it is suitable for sheep, cattle and horses and for every kind of tropical and sub tropical agriculture; it is well-watered and well-wooded, and could provide room for a million settlers; and it is virgin country—it was discovered only about 1932, and there are only a few gold-miners and missionaries in there now.

It is imperative, for the safety of Australia, that this country be occupied and settled. It will not be colonised, ex tensively, by Australians, until Austra lia’s own empty spaces are filled up, and Australia has ample money to spare for such an enterprise. But the country could soon be filled with Jewish colon ists: and the Jewish organisations could help considerably with finance.

Officialdom, probably, taking the one eyed view, will insist that native rights must have precedence, and will wave the Mandate furiously under the noses of those who demand action, and pro gress and settlement. The natives must be protected, of course, and there is a very large native population in the re gion between the Ramu-Purari water shed and the head-waters of the Sepik.

But it is a vast region, capable of pro viding for all the natives, for a hundred years, and then leaving plenty of room for all the immigration that can be or ganised.