ASIATICS AND THE COLONIES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 267, 4 August 1908, Page 6

ASIATICS AND THE COLONIES.

Colonel Sebly's statement, which we printed yesterday, upon the . attitude of tHe British Government 'towards colonial views upon Asiatic immigration is the first clear statement of official British policy on this important subject. Properly . to estimate the full significance of the Under-Secretary's utterance, we require its context and it's occasion, since such speeches are not generally spontaneous contributions to debate. Even apart from the circumstances of its deliverance, however, the speech is an important and striking one, and will create general-sat-isfaction throughout" the Empire. In estimating that the question is ah overwhelmingly important" one, and that "the whole future of the Empire depended on present steps,' since a false move might shatter it,"ftho Under-Sec-retary possibly exaggerated the gravity of the problem in the same degree as he under-rated the capacity of the Empire to withstand the shocks of blundering policies. No such weakness is apparent, however, in the rules of conduct that he laid down for Britain on the one hand and the self-governing colonics on the other. To Britain he counsels sympathy and tho avoidance of a "superior tone " towards'the colonics; to the colonies he recommends generosity in the treatment of the coloured immigrants already within thoir borders, and a logical consistency in their policies of exclusion. He advises, in brief, the policy of " mutual forbearance," and ho " agreed "—probably with a suggestion by Mr. Balfour, who has urged'this course before—that the Imperial Secretariat should take the matter up. The most important of Colonel Seely's statements was his admission of the freedom of the sclf-governirig colonics to regulate immigration, "Wo arc bound to admit," he said, " that the self-governing colonies can exclude whom they will, and we cannot interfere." A' subsequent sentence shows that tho British Government docs not; reserve coloured British subjects from itfe cohcession to colonial sentiment.' That the Under-Secretary added to this charter of freedom some suggestions respecting the " principles " that ought to govern tho colonise in tho matter of exclusion in no way impairs the virtue of

the concession; indeed, this suggestion of a general policy but emphasises the completeness of tho new liberty. The firstfruit of the new British policy has already reached New Zealand in the'shape of the Royal Assent to the Chinese Immigrants Amendment Act passed last year. The way appears open now to an Act of Exclusion if the Government chooses to introduce, and Parliament to pass, such a measure, and, if there is any likelihood of such an Act ever becoming urgently and immediately necessary, • it will be Ear better'to get it upon the Statute Book while the air is cool and the sky clear Of any clouds that might giva. an Act of Exclusion a minatory or provocative aspect. There has always been a want of logic in the restriction hitherto placed upon coloured immigration. If a person is fit to be admitted to a country he is fit to be granted full civil rights; conversely, a person competent to qualify for full civil rights should not be faced with a barrier that does not keep him out, but only makes it a harassing business for him to get in. This was-doubt-less what Colonel Seely meant when he urged that " if the immigrants admitted must sooner or la.ter be given civil rights, they must bo admitted free or not at all."' It is satisfactory that the British Government has relaxed its censorship of colonial ideals in this matter. But specially satisfactory is the s clear evidence furnished by the Under-Secretary's speech that British statesmen are at last willing to admit the paramountcy of the colonial view 'in certain , affairs. As . officialism never works by faith, or trusts itself to a current that it does not understand, it must bo concluded that this new willingness to adopt tho colonial .view means that that view is being understood. Responsibility has a sobering influence on all young and growing things, nations as well as individuals, and the British Government, we are convinced, will find that in handing over the reins in this matter to the colonial Governments, it has not imperilled the safety pf tho Imperial coach. It now remains for-the col-. ; onies worthily to use their new power.