of South Africa perceptibly increased the flow at the turn of the century. But the rest of our Empire has absorbed a very small proportion of our emigrants. The number sailing for “other parts” of the Empire in 1903 was 8,719, and of these the number of actual settlers in the new tropical dominions would be a mere handful.
A certain quantity of military and official employment is afforded by the new Imperialism to the influential upper classes, a few engineers, missionaries, prospectors, and overseers of trading and industrial undertakings get temporary posts, but as a contribution towards the general field of employment the new Imperialism is an utterly insignificant factor.
No substantial settlement of Britons was taking place in 1905 upon any of the areas of the Empire acquired since 1870, excepting the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, nor was it likely that any such settlement would take place. The tropical character of most lands acquired under the new Imperialism renders genuine colonisation impossible: there was no true British settlement in these places; a small number of men spent a short broken period in precarious occupations. The new Empire was even more barren for settlement than for profitable trade.
