Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1941, Page 126

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LE NORD
In March 1939 57 persons — 20 adults and 37 children —
returned, in June the same year 54 persons — 19 adults and
35 children — and in January 1940 95 persons — 37 adults and
58 children. In other words 206 out of the 278 who left this
country have returned. The remaining 72 have stayed on. This
is a little over a quarter of the number; they get on well, the
majority either as members of the original Chirgua colony or
other agricultural colonies in the country, or in some cases as
craftsmen in the towns.
This result cannot in any way be regarded as a fiasco. On the
contrary. The author has recently had the opportunity to read
a manuscript by an emigrant who died a couple of years ago, an
intelligent man who had been round the world a couple of times
and had himself lived as a settler. He reckons with a far smaller
percentage of successful emigrants. And then it must be clear
what we mean by successful in this respect. This does not, of
course, mean becoming a millionaire. Those who become mil-
lionaires may be left out of consideration. They might have
been that at home. A number of internal qualities and ex-
ternal circumstances determine the exceptional career. The
emigrant must know that whether his emigration is a success or
not is a tale which his children may tell, if by that time they have
sufficient judgment to understand what would have become of
them if they had stayed at home compared with what they have
achieved on strange soil. This the emigrant must know: that
privation and toil is his certain share of emigration. Success,
advancement, perhaps what we call happiness is only the
children’s lot. This will only be the immediately decisive motive
to a very few; but the present war, this first chapter of a world-
historical re-grouping, which we are experiencing will hardly be
at an end before large circles of the community will understand
the significance of this motive, and understand that it must decide
their actions. This will be appreciated almost simultaneously
throughout all Europe. The colonial powers will then be able
themselves to organise emigration, provided their colonies are
suited to it, but to the small countries without colonies it may
be something of a vital problem to have everything prepared at
the moment when the appreciation of the necessity of organised
emigration and the will to execute it is manifested.
The author does not believe that the ideas set forth below
about a preparation for emigration are the absolutely best; others