FUTURE COLONIAL POLICY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 20 February 1939, Page 7

FUTURE COLONIAL POLICY.

CENTENARY CELEBRATED. THE DURHAM REPORT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Feb. 18. Great interest attaches to the centenary now being celebrated of the famous Durham report on Canada —as a result of which Canada was given responsible self-government —on account of the fact that it marked the birth of a new conception of responsibility in colonial affairs, the contrast of which with other conceptions still endures as an important factor underlying the international aspects of tho colonial question. The first point is commented on in a leader which the Times devotes to the centenary, and the second is brought out in a statement addressed to Mr Chamberlain by a large number of distinguished signatories. The Times says that the Durham report marked the end of tho old policy of acquiring colonies simply as a source of profit, and it regards the report and the new policies to which it gave rise as “a channel through which the benefits of English liberty and English constitutional freedom have flowed to tho Dominions and colonies.”

In the view of the signatories of the statement sent to the Prime Minister, what is fundamental of the whole question of colonial claims is the purpose for which colonial territories are desired. They say that it is undeniable that in the past some colonial territories, though by no means all, have been acquired by right of conquest, or lor purpose of economic exploitation. “But we hold most strongly,” continues the statement, “that the basis of colonial policy must be a form of trusteeship which makes service to tho inhabitants and the territory the only justifiable moral ground for securing and holding a colonial territory. This conception of colonial policy has been built up during more than a century of effort by statesmen and others drawn from all parties in the State, and it has received increasing recognition during the past 50 years.” “Starting from that point of view, the writers reach the conclusion that the stipuations for the safeguarding of jiative interests in the Berlin and Brussels Pacts, together with the principles of the League of Nations mandate system, constitute the essential elements of an international character regarding native races in c 4onial territories,” the statement adds. In the light of these considerations and in relation to the question oi the transfer of colonial territories, the writers lay down four principles in accordance with which any transfer should be made, while expressing no opinion in advance favourable or unfavourable on proposals for the transfer of such territories to different administrations. The principles are.(1) Respect for the wishes of the inhabitants, which are to bo ascertained as far as possible by impartial inquiry. (2) Observance of obligations in tieaties with native rulers. (3) Acceptance of the system o mandatory trusteeship, the primary object of which should be that of seeking to advance the moral and material conditions of the inhabitants. (!) Prohibition of slavery in all its forms, of economic exploitation of a territory in the interests of a single Power and of the creation of native armies for purposes outside tho territories concerned.