ere was a long correspondence in the _Times_ on the
subject of "Unmarried Daughters." One may print in the text the
admirable letter in which a finger is put upon the heart of the
question. We are told about the incompetence of women to deal with
national affairs, but here we find a woman writing to the _Times_ on a
fundamental matter for the Imperialist, though no member of our Houses
of Parliament has yet given any attention to it.

SIR: Only two of your numerous correspondents on this subject have
really reached the root of the matter.

For more than thirty years the young men of the British Isles have
found it increasingly difficult to make a living in their native
land. Therefore there has been--and still is--a steady exodus of
our male population to our Colonies, where they are unhampered by
the many disadvantages prevailing here. Unfortunately they are
obliged to leave the corresponding proportion of women behind. The
result is a surplus of 1,000,000 women in Great Britain; but let me
hasten to add (lest the mistake be laid upon Nature when it is not
hers) that there is a proportionate shortage of 1,000,000 women in
our colonies. I have recently been on a tour throughout Canada and
the States, and was most struck by the scarcity of women in Western
Canada--there are about eight men to one woman. And in America the
saddest sight of all is the appalling number of half-castes, a blot
on the civilization of the States, but a blot for which Europeans
are responsible. The absence of white women is answerable for the
worst type of population, so that in reality this is a very
pressing Imperial question; and all those interested in the growth
and future of Canada should turn their attention to it. For, unless
we can induce the right sort of British women to emigrate we shall
not have the Colonies peopled with our own race or speaking our own
mother tongue.

Canada wants unmarried women, her cry is for our marriageable
daughters, and each one would find her vocation out there.

Canadian men are one of the finest types of manhood possible, but
they are too hard working to be able to return here in search of a
wife. How gladly they would welcome the possibility of sharing
their homes with a sister or a wife can only be guessed by those
who have been there.

I am so g