to year, increase the amount which it produces by enough to
hold all the people that can be born, and Australia apparently has just
got to the point; its birthrate has just descended to 10 per thousand,
but there has been a correlation between the birthrate and
deathrate.... I do admit that, at the present moment, it {34} has just
got to the point of balance.' The hollowness of an argument such as
that is apparent when it is remembered that the wheat crop of Canada in
1915 was more than 50 per cent. higher than that of 1911. Canada in
five years increased its food supply by half; it is impossible in five
years for the birthrate to increase the population by half. Canada has
done even more, for since 1901 it has increased its wheat supply by 125
per cent., and its population is only two per square mile. Yet in the
vast empty territories of Australia and Canada the Neo-Malthusian would
spread his propaganda!

What is manifest is that if teaching such as that of the
Neo-Malthusians be the ideal adopted by the people of this Empire and
the Dominions beyond the sea, then the Empire is doomed. Australia has
laid it down as an unalterable policy that the continent shall be a
white-man country. How can that policy hold in Australia with a
birthrate of 10 and in New Zealand with a birthrate of 9 {35} per
thousand? The abounding birthrate of Japan and China demands an
outlet. If the men of British race succumb to race-weariness and
adhere to the policy of racial suicide, they must give place to those
that are not yet weary of life. It will be impossible for any race in
the future to hold territories which they cannot occupy, and lands
which they cannot replenish or cultivate. And, yet, in the region of
empty spaces, the Neo-Malthusian regards racial limitation with
satisfaction. 'When the birthrate stood at that level [19 to 20 per
thousand] in Ontario, was that a desirable level for Ontario ... being
a young country with plenty of room for expansion?' was one of the
questions addressed to the secretary of the Malthusian League. 'I am
quite decided Ontario should at present have only that birthrate,' was
the answer. Surely human folly has seldom transcended this.

But the Neo-Malthusian has another argument to support his delusions.
It is {36} that the lowering of the birthrate leads to the lowering of
the deathrate, and thus that there is no decrease in the population.
It was on this ground that the secretary of t