Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1908

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 43, 19 August 1908, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1908

"CANADA'S SPLENDID EXAMPLE."

j Commenting on the difficulty of dealing with race problems, according to a 1 cable message printed in our issue of yesterday, the London Times urges patience, sympathy, and forbearance by the autonomous dominions, and expresses the belief that Australia will not be backward in following Canada's splendid example, which ought to reconcile Imperial and local interests. As it is still the erroneous custom of some persons to attach a quasi-judicial importance to what the London Times may print, we shall say at once that The Times is {but a newspaper like others, represents only a section of British opinion, and is not necessarily in any degree the mouthpiece of British policy. That policy, in regard to the restriction of coloured immigrants, was sufficiently well reaffirmed last month by the Par- 1 liatnentary Under-Secretary for the Colonies, when he told the House of Commons "we are bound to admit that the self-governing colonies can exclude whom they will, and we cannot interfere." Colonel Seely proceeded to add that "If the self-governing colonies sought to exclude British subjects for economic reasons — to prevent wages being cut down, or because of climatic conditions, or social antipathy causing nota — they ought at any rate to treat with the utmost generosity coloured immigrants already there. Tho Imperial Government has asked that for them, and the request has been met by Canada in the friendliest spirit. lam confident that the Governments of Australasia and South Africa will show the same spirit, realising the necessity of mutual forbearance." In one aspect, the quoted remarks of The Times appear to be only a re-statement of those of Colonel Seely ; and if that is a correct impression there is no more to be said. What is done, is done; and the present coloured population of Australasia, as of Canada, is entitled to and receives just treatment under the Jaw ; though it is not to be expected, and Colonel Seely ,was not reported as anticipating, that coloured immigrants will be admitted to j the full rights of citizenship. In June last the Canadian Government granted £5398 compensation to the Chinese who | had suffered by the riots in Vancouver j last September ; and the rights of aliens j are upheld in Australasian courts of jusj tice equally with those of our own com- , munity. But if The Times goes f urther^ and approves Canada's example in dealing with coloured immigrants now entering the Dominion, and Canada's policy in allowing further admission, then it is necessary to say that the Canadian model is by no means one which it is desirable or profitable lor Australasia to follow. To keep the door ajar to colj oured immigrants is only to «keep open a sore which one day must grow into a cancer. The only sane policy is the policy of absolute exclusion. It must be remembered that the local conditions of Canada in regard to coloured immigration are dissimilar from our own, and the Canadian Government is influenced by reasons quite other than those which guide Australasia. Canadian loyalty to the Empire runs side by side with a spirit of Canadian independence that is expressed more decidedly and authoritatively than any spirit of the kind in these countries. The Prime Minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who countenances the immigration arrangements that have won the approval of The Times, does not for that abate one jot of his resolution that Canada shall control her own affairs entirely, or modify in the least his belief I that sooner or later Canada will be severed from the Empire. Sir Wilfrid Laurier has repeatedly declared that i the dependence of Canada on Great Britain "is not to remain for ever." He •says : "I hold out to my countrymen the idea of independence. If we are true to our record we shall again exhibit to the world the unique, the unprecedented example of a nation achieving its independence by slow degrees, and as naturally as the severing of the ripe fruit from the parent tree." "1 have again and again repeated that the goal of my aspiration is the independence of Canada — to see Canada an independent nation in due course of time." The utterances of other Canadian leaders, both Liberal and Conservative, appear to have made it plain enough that the Dominion will not go to war merely at England's request, and in fact will' consent to no Imperial policy that either now or horeafter will involve it in any compromise of its eelf-governing powers. Canada makes no contribution to tho British Navy. Sir Wilfrid Laurier is possibly not averse from making such a contribution ; but he knows that to do so would be to ruin his party in Quebec, to leave it probably without a single seat of the sixty-five which that province possesses in the Dominion House of Commons. The mere discussion of a Navy contribution fills Quebec with unrest, and the first move towards voting Canadian money for such a purpose would be the signal for a national or international gathering of French Canadians from which the gravest consequences might ensue. It must be rehiembered that nearly a third of the Canadian population is of French-descent or French-speaking ; and that these increase fast, while, until the recent i stream of British immigrants began to flow, the proportion of Canadians of Bri- j tish origin was continually decreasing. Tho Canadian complaisance with British desires in regard to coloured immigrants is due greatly to the pressure for cheap labour in the West and NorthWest. Sir Wilfrid Laurier trims the balance as well as he can between the imperative demands of developing industry and the clamour for- railway con- : struction, and the no less imperative expostulation, of Uxa wjiits communities

in British Columbia and the adjacent provinces. It is in British Columbia, where the shoe pinches, that the true Canadian sentiment is expressed. In resisting that sentiment for the time, as far as may be t the Canadian Government is yielding to what it conceives to be the greater pressure for Canadian progress. Its notion is still the notion, at one time familiar in Australia, but now discarded for convincing reasons, that in order to do the rough work of pioneering cheaply, Asiatics may be brought to Canada in moderate numbers without great danger to the white community. Always Canada has shown a discrimination in favour of British Asiatics. She has placed a poll-tax upon Chinese, and at one time the Japanese Government went so far as to prohibit altogether the emigration of Japanese to Canada. Under the present arrangement a restricted number of Japanese may enter yearly; and already, in June last, it was found necessary to draw the attention of the Japanese Government to tho fact that this year's maximum had been exceeded in the first six months of the year. Chinese are still entering in droves in spite of the £100 poll-tax, and fresh legislation will 'almost certainly be applied. Indians aTe admitted as direct travellers, and their numbers, too, are steadily increasing. It is evident that Canada's attitude can Be only temporary. Her policy is the policy of palliatives that Australia has already faied and found worthless. The economic attraction of cheap labour to a high-wage country is irresistible, and it is only a matter of time until Canada too is forced to complete exclusion. To urge us, therefore, to set back the Australasian clock and to follow a belated example which is Teally our own discarded example of an earlier day, is not good advice, and cannot in 1 the end be good Imperial policy.