The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 18, 1910. THE COLOUR QUESTION

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 274, 18 November 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER, 18, 1910. THE COLOUR QUESTION

!■ ■ _ ■ *.- War tha cause that lacks assistance, Wor the wrong that needs resistance. War the future in tho distance, 'Ami tha good that we ems* do.

Of aU the prabdems that the (rulers of our Empire have to handle none is more complex, more difficult, and, indeed, more dangerous, than the question of .the status of the coloured races. On the one hand there are the purely British coTrrnnm-ties, naturally, exclusive, and determined at all costs to Iceep themselves and their country "white"; on the other hand, there are ________ of Orientals,, many already raised fax above the level of barbarism, all fully conscious tbat they are part and parcel of the British Empire, and all _n__o_3 to secure recognition af their claim, to the privileges that the white races enjoy. It is quite imposs-ble to ignore the point of 1 view Of the highly-edTicated Hindu, for example,, who, well swore that in intelligence and culture he ds at least the equal of most of the iwhite lie meets, is yet in __eir eyes essentially an in- ' ferior, and is refused the. light to settle iv their coin-try or -0 stand upon their social level. It ds almost impossible to explain to such a man why he and his compatriots are not from the "white" _tajidp___t eligible for membership in a European community; and even if these argaments were logically convincing, it is hopeless for the authorities to advance them in reply, to the h__f-ar_icu-late but irU-tinctive desire of the great mass of the Indian peoples to share with us the advantages that we enjoy as subjects of the British Crown.

Yet the problem has to foe faced, and difficult as it may the Imperial authorities will be able to solve it only in one way. For whatever form •popular sentiment may take on this subject at Home, there can be no doubt ■about- the character of. public opinion on the' " colour" question in other parts of the Empire. Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and Canada include the largest uninhabited and unsettled areas in the Empire, and it is to these countries that the tide of coloured emigration from India would naturally turn if its course Were unimpeded. . But each of these dependencies and dominjons has resolved that at any risk its people and its country shall be kept "-white;"' There is with us no question of the necessary' inferiority, of the coloured races, and there is no need for considering merely fanciful objections to Orientals on account of their colour alone. The whole matter is to us a practical question of the most vitally important kind. - The- experience of other countries' has proved first that the fusion of white and coloured races tends to the social degradation and deterioration of both; second, thai, the introduction of cheap labour such as the Oriental countries produce so freely, inevitahly lowers the standard of comfort and reduces the wages of the white workers with whom they come into competi■tion. It is on these grounds—not sentimental prejudice's, but " high reasons of State " —that Australia and New Zealand and South Africa have insisted on excluding or deporting Indian immigrants. Such objections .as these -cannot be met by any assertion of Imperial rights, and the one course open ito the rulers of our Empire is to make these facts as clear as possible to the people of India, and to indicate to them -bat they must work out their own destiny within the limits of, their own land.

CHEAP CABLES.

The reduction of" cable charges to halfrates for deferred messages is not in itself a very generous concession, but it is certainly a step in -the right direction. The. great cables of the world, -with the solitary exception of the Pacific Cableare practically, controlled by a handful of -financiers;,, who are apparently determined to take full advantage of the monopoly they enjoy, as long as the. people -w_o pay the charges will put up with them. But the pressure of public Opinion 'has at last aroused the cable companies to a sense of their danger, and the threat of ''Gove__i___nt interference" at Home has produced a distinct effect. The proposal that the Britishowned cables should be bought up by the State has been seriously discussed in England, even by men to whom that sacred .phrase -"private enterprise" still appeals strongly. For everybody familiar with the workings of the cable system is well aware that the charges are, generally speaking, exorbitant, aud that they could be cut down very materially •without encroaching dangerously upon the companies' profits. Considering the fact that the Atlantic cables a_-e never worked to anything like their full cajpacity, aud that ajeoordi-g to Mr. Henniker Heaton some of them are de* liberately "closed down" to bolster up tho monopoly, there is no reason why "deferred messages" at all events should not be carried at far less than the current rates. It should be quite superfluous to enlarge upon the advantages that will be secured by widening these _nv__h__—le ________ of __t_r__-_ic—__ correspondence,, and New 2e___nd will certainly profit to a. very large extent, more especially in regard to her commerce, through a change that will bring her into easier and cheaper coxamunication -with the rest of the world.