A GREAT IMPERIAL PROBLEM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 126, 20 February 1908, Page 6

A GREAT IMPERIAL PROBLEM.

None of the cable messages published to-day will be read, with greater interest in Australasia than that which records Lord Elgin's reply to Lord Ampthill's inquiry whether the Imperial Government intends to invite the colonial Governments to discuss the problem of Asiatics within the Empire. Lord Ampthill so framed his question that Lord Elgin was placed in the position of being required to show cause why the Imperial discussion, by; conference or'otherwise, should not be arranged for an early date. The Minister's reply was not wholly satisfactory, to the Australasian eye at least, but it gives an excuse for' believing that there is an excellent prospect of a-not far distant settlement of the most important Imperial issue of the' time. The subject of coloured immigration into the self-governing dominions of the Empire, lie said, had been debated at the Imperial Conference, hiul had revealed Sir William Lyne—who was supported by New Zealand—as an "uncompromising " advocate of impossible conditions. The Blue Book on the Conference contains 110 record of the ■discussion referred to,, and we are at 11 loss to know the'details of Sir William Lyne's demands. The fact that Canada and the Transvaal have recently concluded temporary settlements of the question seems to be the poorest kind of excuse for postponing consideration of a subject affecting the very, life of the Empire. A remarkable and stimulating fact is, the rapid growth'in the-English Press of a warm sympathy with tbe anxiety of the. dominions to regulate, coloured immigration in - accordance with their race-instinct. The London '"Times " still holds out stubbornly against the 'contumelious dominions, and it has lately " shaken a big stick," as the Americans say, at the whole overseas Empire. The weight of British Press opinion, however, which was decidedly hostile to the dominions until recently, has veered round to a sympathetic recognition of the rights of the autonomous dependencies. The views of the " Spectator " are, in this instance, representative of that'opinion. Applauding the Colonial Office's decision to sanction the; Transvaal's restriction of Asiatic immigration, the great London weekly observes,.that " the future, is with, the colonies, and nothing could be more ill-advised than to fill them from the first' with colliding races," and holds also that the 'colonies are in the right"in clainiing ""to settle what the future ; ethnic conditions of thsir growing States shall be." Until the whole subject is discussed by the whole Empire, l however, there are. possibilities. of vexation and danger.. A good understanding, and an early one, is 'urgently required. ■ • ■