VIOLATED PLEDGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13708, 26 March 1908, Page 5

VIOLATED PLEDGES.

CHINESE ON THE RAND.

THE COMMONS' DEBATE. By Telegraph.— l'rcss Association Copyright. London, March' 24. Mr. Asquith, replying in the House of Commons to Mr. Lyttelton's attack on the Government, reprobated language calculated to add to the difficulties of the self-government of the Transvaal. His pledge, he maintained, had been fulfilled in letter and spirit. In the speech made in 1906, which had been cited by Mr. Bonar Law as showing in** consistency, he undertook to defeat any attempt to establish the permanence of Chinese labour. Mr. Balfour, in a trenchant reply, while emphasising what he considered a violation of pledges, accepted the declaration that the speech meant something which it did not contain. He invited Mr. Asquith to produce the correspondence with the Transvaal relating to the assent to the re-enactment of the Chinese labour ordinance. Ultimately, the Consolidated Revenue Bill, upon which the debate arose, was read a second time. The Standard states that Mr. Lyttelton accidentally discovered that assent had been given to the re-en-actment while the ex-Colonial Secretary was examining the Transvaal's official records.