ASIATICS AND VOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13872, 5 October 1908, Page 4

ASIATICS AND VOTES.

The statement of Colonel Seeley, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, that if any community required cheap Asiatic labour, then the labourers must have the rights of citizenship, may be regarded as the formula by which the Imperial Government hopes to Settle all racial problems. For there never was a Liberal Administration which did not confidently anticipateHhe settlement by formula of all the ills to which political society is heir. Most; colonials will agree that as a theory this formula is an excellent one, and most of the self-governing colonies will further assert : that jit embodies the principle upon whicn they base their exclusionist policies. But most thoughtful Imperialists will feel that, however much the sentiment appeals to most of the oversea dominions, it is one full of danger to the Imperial authority |&n

Asiatic labourer who ships •to Fiji is no more and .no. less entitled to self-government than he was before; yet" are we to assume that.the British colonist in Fiji is to have no more political rights than the coolie. If the Hindoo abroad is to be admitted without question to all the privileges of the Englishman, .why should the Hindoo at home be kept in tutelage and dependence'.' The truth is that behind all these official dogmas and imposing theories lies the fact that European and Asiatic cannot possibly-, live side by side upon terms of political equality, because their political, social and •ethical conceptions are altogether different. European communities ought to deal justly and fairly with all aliens, whether Asiatic or African, but cannot be blamed if they find themselves compelled for their self-preservation to take steps which do not appear entirely consistent with acceptable thepries. '■