IMPERIAL "COLOUR"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 45, 21 August 1913, Page 7

IMPERIAL "COLOUR"

A PROBLEM FOR STATESMEN. PERIL FOR THIT" WHITE NEW ZEALAND" POLICY. Last year the Wellington City Corporation licensed six "Bombay boye " (Indian coolies, British BUbjects) to pcU fruit in the streets. In April this year the hawkers of the Orient totalled twenty, but the Chief Inspector (Mr. Doyle) says he believes that BOrne have left the 'capital. These immigrants usually land first in Auckland from

Aji, and trek to various parts of the Dominion. As they are British subject* there is no poll tax on thebe Asiatics. There is no more restriction against them than against any other foreigners. The coolies pass the doctor,- go through an education test (an application for 'admission in about a hundred words of any European language), and then have (he freedom Of New Zealand. It is said that a " school " in Fiji helps the coolies, who are mainly nimble-minded to qualify themselves to pass the education test. The Indians are so quiet in th« streets that their presence is not obtruded on the- public. They stand mutely by their barrows of fruit; the writer has ! been near those dealers scores of times, 4)nt has Hot heard one utter a word to ■draw attention to the goods. The city authorities have no evidence of bad con duct against these men of the East. DISCUSSION AT AN IMPERIAL ! CONFERENCE. Indian emigration and immigration ■was one of the many subjects debated tb the Imperial Conference of 1911. The Earl of Crewe (Secretary of State 'for India) said: —"l fully recognise, as His Majesty's Government fully re«ognises, two facts: The first is that, as the Empire is constituted, the idea that it is possible to have an absolutely free interchange between all individuals^ who are subjects of the Crown— that is to aay, that every subject of the King, whoever he may be or wherever he may ,h've, has a. natural right to travel or, still more, to settle in any part of the •Empire— is a view which we fully admit, and I fully admit as representing jHihe India Office, to be one which cannot be maintained. As the Empire is constituted it is still impossible that We ' liave a free coming and going of all the subjects of the King throughout al' I parts of the Empire, or, to put the thing . in another way, nobody can attempt to dispute the right of the self-governing ' Dominions to decide for themselves ' -whom, in each case, they will admit as •oitisens of their respective Dominions. "We will not encourage India in any . way to develop what, as circumstances are. can only be called extravagant claims for entrance into the self-govern-ing Dominions," the Earl continued, "and we will do oui* best to explain to them what the conditions of the Empire really are. In turn 1 think we are en titled, and indeed it is our duty, to i -ask the Ministers of the self-governing Dominions to spread within their own area in each case a realisation of how I deep ami how widespread feeling on this ' subject in India is." The statesman made much of an argument that drastic antagonism to Indian immigration was , "a- very real asset, and a valuable asset, in India, to those who are opposed to i our rule there." He concluded with an appeal for "first-hand understandings j "between the Dominion Governments and I the Government of India." SIR JOSEPH WARD'S OPINION. "Why," asked Sir Joseph Ward, j ("should not we take the matter up * from the highest national standpoint and urge upon all the different portions of the world the desirableness of having all races kept to their own zones? ... It must be recognised that there are duties devolving upon each of the Governments responsible for the governing of the races in the different countries, and I believe at some time or other in the future we shall have to come to the question of providing for every colour going back to, and keeping to, its own zone." THE LUCID LAURIER. ','1 know from mv experience in my country," said Sir "Wilfrid Laurier (then Premier of Canada), "Sir Joseph "Ward, I think, knows it in his, and 'Australia and South Africa know it, that the moment Asiatic labour is allowed to cqme indiscriminately into competition with white labour there is a disturbance. It is not on account of the prejudice of colour. This prejudice exists undoubtedly, but it is not a serious factor. As Sir Joseph Ward stated^ the Asiatic has been accustomed to a, civilisation utterly different from our own, perhaps a civilisation superior to our own; but the broad fact remains that, under the civilisation of , ages, , the Asiatic working man can work for a wage for which a white man ciannot work and live, and keep his respectability. That has been a condition everywhere where Asiatic labour has come into competition with white labour, not only in the countries represented here, but in California and everywhere else where it has taken place. Ido not know what the remedy is. It may be the remedy is to keep*, as Sir Joseph Ward said, every race to its zone, bat how it is to be reached I do not know." AUSTRALIA'S VdICE. Mr. Batcholor (Australia) : —^"On the general question raised by Lord Crewe with regard to a United Empire, the mixture of black and white races, or a freer admission, of them into the countries now inhabited by the separate races, I think any suggestion that would work towards that would tend to a disunited Empire rather than a United Empire. I , feel that very strongly. I think w© recognise that there are localities in which both black and white can live separately, and. that we should have the best possible and most harmonious relationfc with th© two races."