YELLOW LABOUR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8543, 25 March 1908, Page 7

YELLOW LABOUR.

DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) l J er Press Association

LONDON, March 24. In the House of Commons, on the debate on the second reading of the Consolidated Revenue Bill the Right Hon. A. Lyttelton caused a great commotion in the Ministerial benches. He strenuously protested against the Government sanctioning in December the re(-ienactment, dating from last August, for two and a half years, of every line of the late Govei'jiiment s ordinance and regulations regarding, indentured Chinese labour, which, for four years and from ten thousand platforms, the Liberals had held up to execration and scorn. He declared that the enafctment was deliberately sanctioned behind the back of Parliament and was a breach of pledges made to Parliament.

Mr Asquith: Do you say we, -in assenting to the ordinance, intended to break our pledge? " Cries of "You did break it. Mr Lyttelton, continuing: ihe Government's intentions must be explained by the Government themselves. Neither in Blue Book nor speech has assent been mentioned. Mr Winston Churchill' (Under-Sec-retary for the Colonics) admitted that there had been some element of exaggeration during the period of election, but the prediction of vicious results from the system had been justified. Happily, the Transvaal s noble efforts had reduced the coolies from 63,000 to 28,000, and he predicted that bv the end of 1908 not upwards of 10,000 would remain in the Transvaal. Any ordinance or regulations which had been sanctioned formed a necessary part of liquidation. Mr A. Bonar Law (Conservative) quoted Mr Asquith's speech of February, 1906, as proof of the change in the Liberal attitude.

Received March 25, 8.2 a.m. LONDON, March 24. Mr Asquith, replying to Mr Lyttelton, reprobated language calcxilated to acid to the Transvaal's difficulties of self-government. His pledge was fulfilled in letter and spirit. In a speech made in 1906 he undertook to defeat an attempt to establish the permanence of Chinese labour.

Mr Balfour, in a trenchant reply, while emphasising the violation of pledges, accepted the declaration that the speech meant something it did not contain. He invited Mr Asquith to produce the correspondence with the Transvaal relating to his assent to the re-enactment. Ultimately the Consolidated Revenue Bill was read a second time. The Standard states that Mr Lyttelton accidentally discovered that assent had been given to re-enactment while examining the Transvaal's official records.