EMPIRE'S ASIATICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 43, 19 February 1908, Page 5

EMPIRE'S ASIATICS.

XEE PROPOSED CONTEREWCE. AN OITICIAZ STATEMENT. (Received 8.10 ajn.) LOXDOX. February 18. In the House of Lords. Lord AmpthiU. fiie well-known Indian administrator, who acted as Governor-General during Jjord Curzon's absence in England in 1904. asked the Secretary of State for the ■ Colonies whether the Government intended to invite the Governments of the colonies to discuss, by conference or otherwise, tne question of the treatment of Asiatics in the colonies -with a view to arriving at an agreement upon general principles or Imperial application. The Earl of Elgin replied that the subject had been debated at the Imperial Conference by Sir William Lyne and Sir James Mackay i speaking for India), and the discussions were somewhat lively. Sir William Lyne having adopted an uncompromising position and prescribed conditions to which the Government of India could never assent. 2\ew Zealand's atti- ] tnde was the same a≤ that of Sir William Lvne. j It would be difficult, the Colonial See- j retarv continued., to initiate a fresh dis- I cession so soon after the Imperial Conference. Besides, it would be scarcely fair to begin again before the ink was dryon the settlements recently concluded by Canada and the Transvaal. He under- j wok to use the first opportunity either by conference or some more diplomatic method, but the present moment was inopportune.