COLOUR QUESTION, HOW IT AFFECTS INDIA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 145, 21 June 1911, Page 7

COLOUR QUESTION, HOW IT AFFECTS INDIA.

DISCUSSION AT IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. NEW ZEALAND MOTION. By Telegraph.— Prcsi Association.— Copyright. LONDON, 20th June. The feature of yasterday'6 sitting of the Imperial Conference was the debate on the position of the Dominions with regard to the admission of coloured British subjects, and their exclusion from the martime trade between two Dominions. Mr. Lewis Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies, presided, and Lord Crewe, Secretary of State for India z was also present. Sir Joseph Ward moved— "That the self-governing Oversea Dominions have now reached a stage of development when they should be entrusted with wider legislative powers in respect of British and foreign shipping. LORD CREWE'S VIEWS. Lprd Crewe, Secretary of State for India, said that before the resolution was discussed he wished to Tefer to the question as it affected India. He had come to the conclusion that the Conference could not discuss any question more difficult and critical than the treatment of native races within the Dominions. He had previously expressed the opinion that the differences between whites and natives seemed to threaten not only the well-being but the actual existence of the Empire. In one sense the question was insoluble, and the Government recognised the absolute impossibility of free interchange between all the subjects of the Crown Nobody would dispute the Dominions 1 right as to whom they were to admit to citizenship. He also recognised ' that it was easy for Britain to underrate the difficulties confronting the Dominions/ because the British people at Home were untroubled by any similar problem. The Dominions had two separate, but closely interwoven, objections to a large influx of native population. The first was that the influx might mean a rivalry of cheap labour, and the second the colour bar. The Indians by pride of descent and their personal qualities, on tfye other hand, claimed consideration. THE FEELING IN INDIA. Lord Crewe, continuing, submitted that while the problem Was not to be solved by heroic legislation, the relations of the different races might be materially improved by the cultivation of a mutual understanding. The India Office and the Government of India would always do their utmost to explain to the Indians their position in the Dominions. They wore entitled, on the other hand, to ask the Dominions" to make it known in their own areas that there was a widespread feeling in India about the treatment of their people. Th& was a fact' which those Indians objecting to British rule in India not seldom used to damage the Government. He suggested the possibility of the Dominions ' acting within restrictions imposed so as to make the admwion of Indians easier and pjeasanter than was now the case. This would do much to improve the relations wuh India. (JPnerwisewe were far from^ being a united Empire. If the Dominions displayed a ; friendly spirit, the best public opinion in India would recognise it, and do its best peacefully to solve the difficulties arising. WHAT NEW ZEALAND FEELS. Sir Joseph Ward, in moving hie resolution, said that New Zealand entertained a feeling of loyal friendliness towards India. The resolution was directed against a low-paid coloured race competing with British-manned ships in New Zealand. Lord Crewe had admitted .the undeniable right of the Dominions with regard to citizenship, but if the present conditions were continued there wer« two alternatives. New Zealand shipping mus,t transfer its registrations and place them where shipowners were not subject to law, and could employ Lascars at low wages, or else they must repeal the whole of the laws passed in the interests of the white crews. Either proposition was unthinkable. Personally he believed that New Zealandertt felt they ought to urge upon all nations the policy of every colour going back to its own zone. Sir J. G. Frndlay said the question was not all racial, but partly economic. OTHER OPINIONS. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, supported the motion, but declared that he was not anxipus to, impair the spirit of loyalty in, the native populations so as to make it difficult for Britain to maintain good relations. Nevertheless the faofc remained that the moment Asiatic labour competed with whites it disturbed the existing conditions seriously and jeopardised the Empire. This was not due to colour prejudice, but arose from the fact that Asiatics had a different civilisation and a different standard of living. Mr. Batchelor, Australian Minister for External Affairs, declared that the Australian view was similar to New Zealand's. There had been much agitation in the past through the misunderstanding of the Dominions' position. He waa anxious to remove an anomalous restriction, but they must consider local necessities. Senator Pearce, Australian Minister for Defence, said that all their shipping law aimed at was to prevent foreigners aaving an advantage over their own shipping in their own waters. Mr. Malan, South African Minister for Education, stated that th« labour aspect troubled Canada, Australia,, and New Zealand, but self-preservation, not the labour question, was the problem, fronting South Africa. There an overwhelming African population made it impossible to allow the introduction of another coloured race. The problem, so far as the employment of Lascars was concerned, was chiefly a labour difficulty^ but from the Indian standpoint the difficulty was not diminished when Sir Joseph Ward said the difficulty was not racial but economic. The Indians have an undoubted right to deal with their own economic conditions, and they could not legitimately complain at New Zealand for doing the same. MOTION ADOPTED. Lord Crewe, in referring to the suggestion that coloured races should re,main in their own area, stated that as Colonial Secretary he instructed a committee to ascertain the conditions under which immigration might be encouraged from India to the Crown colonies, and he hoped that good reeulte might accrue. was a move in the suggested direction, but the (Probability of the diiierent races being finally confined to their own areas was I a larger question. S Mr. Fisher, Prime "Minister of Australia , said life regarded the motion as an admission that tho Dominions had not posseted the fullest powers. He now disagreed vwth that view. Tho motion was adopted, the Aus-