Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1906. MR CHURCHILL AND THE COLONIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 115, 18 May 1906, Page 2

Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1906. MR CHURCHILL AND THE COLONIES.

The hoav Under-Secretary for the Colonies is reported by a recent cable to have disclaimed any intention of pursuing a policy calculated to bemean and irritate the colonial section of the Empire. The colonies will be pleased ;\q hear,him say so; but they are likely :tto withhold their confidence until he has substantially proved himself by his deeds. <Mr Churchill's debut has not inMe a very favorable impression ; and his success, if he is to achieve success ajbrajl, lies almost wholly in the future. The sentiment of the colonists is expressed with tolerable fidelity in the following letter written a few weeks ago to one of the organs of the British Labdr 'Party by Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P. for Leicester, and Secretary,, t0.,, the Labor Representation Committee:—" I do not think I am an over-cautious man, or that my sympathies witlr oppressed black and yellow men in South Africa are niggardly. But I am. bound to say that, unless the Cabinet muzzle Mr Winston Churchill, they will bring themselves into a disastrous conflict with the colonies. Mr Churchill speaks like an irresponsible person, and the pride he seems to take in reminding the Transvaal people that he suspects them, and that he is to veto certain Acts they may pass, is very blundering statesmanship. These are matters for private despatches, not for" public speeches. Mr Churchill has got into office far top soon. This may sound strange from a Labor member, but I foresee' 'grave discord between the ColonieM^ the Mother Country if Mr Chnrcniiris allowed to go on as he is going.^ Nor do I think the Government's Sduth African policy is wise, tt'* is-not decisive enough. No one knows when it is to come into active operation. I think the Government ought to have appointed a Commission to inquire into mining conditions, and the Commission should have been composed partly of political administrators and partly of mining experts. It should have definitely stated that until the Commission reported no change would be made in the political affairs of the country, and it ought to have Avithdrawn altogether the inoperative Constitution of last year. Meanwhile no new recruiting should have.been allowed under the Ordinance (a thing now done), and the licenses granted after Lord Elgin's despatch should have been cancelled. That would have tended to settle the minds of the people, and would have made it unnecessary for Mr Churchill or anyone else to insult the Transvaal by stating that if it passed certain laws the home Government would veto them." This is salutary advice, even though it comes from a man who is not the best authority on colonial tradition and. feeling. The process of ' muzzling Lord Randolph's son may be a difficult one; but, if it is not carried out, either by Cabinet or by Mr Churchill himself, the relations between the Motherland and the oversea possessions will not be improved. .