Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1004. NO "DISTINCT IMPERIAL INTEREST!"

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1904, Page 4

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1004. NO "DISTINCT IMPERIAL INTEREST !"

A more careful consideration of tho I reply oi the Imperial authorities to the protest of our Government against tlio I proposed importation of Chinese labour into tho Transvaal lias only seived to deepen tho flrat impression which we> announced yesterday niter a somewhat hasty perusal. The Secretary of State for the Colonies is polite, and oven complimentary, in his acknowledgment of "tho title of all tho self-governing colonies to express their opinion on co important a question, and especially of those- who, like Now Zealand, rendered meinorablo services in the South African War." Wo i do not for a moment dispute the sincerity of this handsomo acknowledgment, but New Zealand is already becoming less responsive, to these compliments now that she realises to what vilo uses the fruits of tho victory to which at tho time she- was proud to contribute are being turned ; and in the present ca*t> «ho would have gladly had a little less kindness and a little inoro logic. The sentences which epitomises the objections to the courso urged by our Government is a perfect prodigy 6f confusion : "His Majesty's Government declares that its policy is to treat tho Transvaal as though it was a se-If-governing colony, unless a distinct- Imperial interest is concerned, and to interfere as little as pofwiblo with local opinion and local wishes." Every one of tho three assertions made or implied in tliis sentence seems to us to be fallacious, for (1) the Transvaal is not being treated as a, sdfcoverning colony, (2) there is a distinct Imperial interest concerned, and (3) no interference with local opinion and local wishes is suggested or desired. These threo propositions are tho diametrical opposite of those expressed or implied by tho Secretary of State for tho Colonies, and a-s wo have put them, the first two aro dcmouatrably correct,, .while tlio third, though open to argument, appears to us quito sound. If tho Transvaal was being treated, or could be treated, us a self-governing colony, New Zealand, ns a eolf-governing colony herself, would valiuj her own rights far too jealously to thVik of trespassing upon tho freedom of another. But tho Trnnsvnal does not as vet enjoy tho privi'.ogo of governing itself, and when tho Hon. Mr. Lyttelton speaks of'treating it as though it wero a «clf-(jov<>rning colony, ho reafly means that Lord Milner and tho rest of tho official oligarchy at Pretoria <\ro to be treated as having the sumo absolute discretiou which by custom is allowed to the representative government of a free colony. Tho arrangement i« a very nice one for Lord Milner, but a very hard ono for tho Transvaal. The Imperial authorities deny it tho. boon of self-government, but by way of compensation they concede to its nominated rulers absolute power, and by a lino stroke of irony they doscribo this procw* aa "treating tho Transvaal as though it was a so'.f-govorning colony." To call it treating Lord Milner as an irresponsible autocrat would bo much nearer tlio mark. The relucfcanco of tho Imperial Government "to interfere with local opinion and local wiaheo" has a similar ironical flavour. This colony hns never urged that local opinion should be overruled; on tho contrary, wo desiro thab it should be ascertained and obeyed. Wo beliovo that it would pronounce against the scheme, and^ tho unwillingness of tho officials and the nune-ownere to try an experiment which would put tho matter to a conclusive test naturally tends to cozifirm this belief. It is comical, indeed, that whon wo ask to have tho will of the people of the Transvaal, and not. that of tho bureaucracy and tho plutocracy, mod© the determining factor, we should bo accused of desiring to interfere with local opinion. There is certainly more- humour than logic or atatannanskip about tho reply, which tacitly identities Lord Milner and tho | Ecksteins wifh the people, just as the French monarch identified himself with | tho State. On any other supposition, to I urge "that each of tho States of tho Empire, by reason of its direct interest and special knowledge of tho conditions affecting it, is 4 best able to deal with its own problems," is to stato our case, not to answer it. That the Trnusvaal should bo permitted to pronounce on its own I problems is all we ask, but wo can never accept tho decision of the present regime us representative or unbmsed Even assuming that the contention of tho Imperial Government on tho two points wo havo considered wero mado good, tho question still remains whether tho present caso docs nob com:, within tho exception which they themselves admit to tlio general rule of non-inter-ference. They concede that tho rule docs not apply where "a distinct Imperial interest is concerned," but they assuino without argument or direct assertion that this is not a case of tho kind. Wo nhould have supposed that tho nature of the war which turned the Truusvaal in^o a British colony, the demands which it mado upon tho resources of tho Empire, and *ho general recognition of the fact that nob Uio Transvaal, nor even South Africa alone, but our hold upon India and tho stability of tho whole Empire, wero staked upon tho issue, would have sufficed to constitute the present an exceptional and, indeed, a unique oaso of a "distinct Imperial interest" boing involved in u-hat is primarily a matter of local concern. The sordid plot of rapacious and tinscrupulous millionaires, mostly of foreign extraction, upon the liberties of a British colony would under ordinary conditions call for no interference from tho Empiro at large as long as it w«s conducted according to tho forms of law ; but surely a plot which mny lead to another racial war in South Africa, with added elements of mischief, concerns pretty closelj every part of tho Empire which took a hand in tho previous one. Who can say that South African affairs since tho war havo ever attained to a position ol Htublo equilibrium, or to anything approaching it 7 — and where would the Empire be if another strugglo wero precipitated which England and* tho self-governing colonies might regard with as much aversion as they fell enthusiasm for tho ono before? Who would have gone to war to help the Ecksteins to add to their millions by flooding tho country with Chinamen? — and who will go to war again if that should become tho plain, unmistakable, ujidiHguisable iEßiie? "When the guns begin to shoot" it is tho Empire as a, whole and nob tho Johannesburg Chwnbor of Mines that will bo ask«d to lx ir the brunt of it, ami this po* don surely entities us to cladm a very "distinct Imperial interest" for the question. Of tho analogy which tho Secretary lor ihe Colonlon aUomjjtu to «*Ublwh

between Mie exclusion of Asiatics from jUistralia and New Zealand it ia difficult to speak with icsnoct. It would have b(>en m:»d on tho part of the Imperial authorities to defy colonial opinion in the c.ncs referred to, but this hardly proves their wisdom in allowing Lord Milner to defy colonial opinion iv the present instance. If lie is not defying it, tho proposed referendum will do him no harm; if he is, it may kuo him from doing the colony an irrepninblo injury. A fortnight ago wo wero authoritatively told Io expect an early electoral redistribution with a view (o the introduction of representative government. Failing an immediate referendum, why not wait for that? If, on 1 tho other hand, tho •syndicates succeed in getting their Chinamen and excluding tho whito labourer, tlio alternatives aro cithet' a that responsible government be definitely postponed in favour of the mine-owners, who will run tho country with a single object, or, if ib be conferred, the Boers will aohievc by constitutional means what they failed to hold by force of arms — tho domination of the country. This is the terrible dilemma with "which the Transvaal and the Empire arc being threatened by tho policy on ■which Lord Miln.er'B heart is set.