International Phases of the Land Question

Abstract

SUPERFICIALLY the land question would seem to be wholly a national or a local question with little or no bearing on international problems. Fundamentally, however, there are few questions of more far-reaehing and enduring international interest. The currents of human migration in the past have been mainly in pursuit of land. Land policies, of course, had nothing to do with the migrations of primitive tribes. These were mainly migrations of conquest. Wherever unpeopled lands have lain within the jurisdiction of governments strong enough to repel invaders the peopling of such lands has been a question of the land policy of the government.