SOUTH AFRICAN STRIKE AND BRITISH PARLIAMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 14 February 1914, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN STRIKE AND BRITISH PARLIAMENT

GREAT SPEECH BV MR HARCOURT

BOUND BY A SILKEN CORD

; t'ams a.9Socia'xtoiv. —Cnrx bhjh r w LONDON, Feb. 13. Mr Harcourt commended Mr MacDonald's moderation, and said the speeches that night could be cabled throughout the Empire, and any words of derogation .of their autonomous rights would reverberate through the Dominions. Autonomy could not, be divorced from Imperial unity, and it carried no immunity from public criticism, but the Dominions were entitled to the largest amount of relief from official interference and Parliamentary censure. They might easily smash the Empire by a day's debate if the House evinced a desire to meddle or muddle, "with the vital affairs of the Dominions whenever their actions made for what some people regarded as dangerous experiments. Australia and New Zealand had compulsory military training, which at present was neither in force nor in favour in the United Kingdom. In Canada and South Africa some strikes were criminal offences. British citizenship was really a misnomer. It was an attempt to translate it too literally as "Civis Romanus sum." It entitled the possessor to his Sovereign's protection through the executive, but it did not give the individual rights of entry or any license in any part of the Empire. If attempts were made" to violate laws which were within the Dominions' competence the Imperial Parliament -could not interfere or intervene as if it were a Crown Colony. The position of South Africa's Governor-General was largely analogous to the position of the Sovereign of Great Britain. If Lord Gladstone had refused to -follow its advice, the Government would have resigned, leaving him a solitary figure facing a tumult which he would have been unable to conciliate or quell. Lord Gladstone's only resource was the Imperial troops. :

"It is neither my duty nor my® intention," continued Mr Harcourt-, "to comment upon the South African Government's acts- That 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 our-, selves taught the South Africans'the deportation lesson when, in July, 1900, we deported 1700 persons of various nationalities without trial owing yto a plot to murder officers at Johannesburg. Deportation has been part of the ordinary law, in the Transvaal for six years, and it was only amended by the 1915 immigration law. Admittedly it is within the competence of South Africa to define what type of immigrant she is prepared to admit. Restrictive legislation of this kind has been in operation Canada, Australia, and New Zealand."

Mr Harcourt went on to say that if the South African Parliament approved of the Indemnity Bill it would be in the highest degree impolitic to refuse the Royal asesnt to it. The New Zealand Act of 1886 was not a case in point. There the Royal assent 'was withheld solely because the measure did not contain a clause specifying that the acts to be indemnified should be done in good faith. When an earlier Colonial Secretary asked Natal to suspend capital [ sentences, the Natal Government resigned, and protests against the supposed British action were received from the Australian and New Zealand Governments within two days." Mr Harcourt concluded with an appeal to the Labourites to remember thatlabour, above all classes, was interested in the maintenance of self-government. The Empire was held together by a silken cord, and they should beware lest they twisted that cord into a whip lash. The first crack of that lash would be the death knell of the Empire. ■"We' have created great free parliaments wideflung throughout the world," Mr Harcourt added. "They are our constant pride, and only an occasional embarrassment. Treat them with wide confidence, and .we and they shall win through for all that is essential as the basis of freedom and civilisation." The speech was so. satisfactory that tho front Opposition bench decided not to participate in the debate. The rest of the speeches were without feature, and tvere delivered id a- tliin House. DOMINIONS MUST CONSUME. THEIR. OWN SMOKE. (Rec.'Feb. 14,.8.10 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 13. The "Westminster Gazette" says the debate was- a model of correctness in so far as it dealt, with the self-governing dominions; but the deportations concern ■us inasmuch as our "law courts will ; be possibly called' on to decide certain principles, whereof the deporteds are flagbearers. We become the legatees of the South Africa trouble. As a general principle the self-governing dominions should consume their own smoke. The "Westminster" adds that the'lndemnity Bill will be followed by _a Public Meeting and Disturbances Bill, and an Industrial Disputes Prevention Bill.