"BAMBOOZLED"

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1914, Page 7

"BAMBOOZLED "

AND " DUPED BY RASCALS " DISCUSSION IN UNION PARLIAj MENT SPEECH BY MINISTER OF RAILWAYS. (By Teiegraph.— Pre«« Association.— Copyrljht\ (Received February 20, 8.20 a.m.) CAPETOWN, 19th February. In the Union House, Air. Burton, Minister for Railways, declared that the railway men had been deluded, bamboozled, and duped by rascals. According to the secret code of the railway men's society, preparations had been made to run trains to suit the strikers and to issue an ultimatum against Lord Gladstone (the Governor-General) and the Government. READER OF THE OPPOSITION DEPORTATIONS WERE A MISTAKE. STORY OF CONSPIRACY. (Received February 20, 8.40 a.m.) CAPETOWN, 19th February. Mr, Burton declared that he had not acted as a constitutional lawyer, but in the bona fide conviction that the deportation of the ringleaders was necessary. He would do the same again under .similar circumstances. He admitted that the deportations were grossly illegal, but men of the class of those deported constituted a real white peril to the country. Sir Thomas Smartt (Leader of the Opposition) said the proclamation of martial law had the support of a vast majority in the country. The deportations were a mistake ; the Government should have submitted a Bill authorising the deportations immediately Parliament opened. He would support the Government rather than take the responsibility of allowing the deported men to return to continue their nefarious practices. All*. Hull (an ex-Minister) said he regarded the story of a widespread conspiracy as merely an afterthought to justify the deportations. It was, he said, the height of nonsense to allege a conspiracy because nine jackasses had made inflammatory speeches. The root cause of the trouble was unhappy rela tions between masters and men. mr. harcourt praised, by transvaal" newspaper. ACCURATE INTERPRETATION. (Received February 20, 8.40 a.m.) CAPETOWN, 19th February. The Volkstoin, a journal in Dutch and English, published at Pretoria, 1 says that Mr. Lewis Havcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies, interpreted with absolute accuracy the Imperial position, and deserves the unstinted gratitude of the Empire for his sagacious and necessary warning against offensive criticism of colonial politicians by English Parliamentarians. [Speaking in the House of Commons, Air. Harcourt said that they could easily smash the Empire by a day's debate, if the House evinced a desire to meddle and muddle with the vital affairs of the Dominions whenever their actions made what some people would regard as dan» gerous experiments. Australia and New Zealand, for instance, had compulsory military training, which at present was neither in force nor in favour in the United Kingdom, in Canada, or in South Africa. Some strikes were criminal offences. British citizenship was really a misnomer. It was an attempt to translate too literally "Civis Romanus sum." It entitled the possessor to the Sovereign's protection through the Executive, but did not give individual rights of entry or any license in any part of the Empire. If attempts were made to violate the laws which were within a Dominion's competence, the Imperial Parliament could not interfere or intervene as if it were a Crown colony. The position of South Africa's Governor-General wag laigely analogous to the position of the Sovereign of Britain. If Lord Gladstone had relused to follow its advice, the Government would have resigned, leaving him a solitary figure, facing th» tumult which ha would be unable to conciliate or to quell. Lord Gladstone's only resource was the Imperial troops. "It is neither my duty nor my intention to comment on the South African Government's acts," went on Air. Harcourt. "It would be an unwise and dangerous precedent, The habit of nagging criticism regarding the Dominions' conduct of their own internal affairs is the worst cement we can apply to the distant democracies. We, ourselves, taught the South Africans a deportation lesson when, in July, 1900, we deported 1700 people of various nationalities, without trial, owing to a plot to murder officers in Johannesburg. Deportations have been part of the ordinary law of • the Transvaal for six years, and the ordinary law was only amended by the 1913 Immigration Law. Admittedly it is within the competence of South Africa to define what type of immigrant it is prepared to admit. Restrictive legislation of this kind has long been in operation in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand."J