The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1921.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3509, 14 June 1921, Page 36

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1921.) THE WEEK.

“Xnnquam allud natura, alliid sapientia dixit.’* —Juvenal. “Good nature and good sense must ever join.”— POI’E.

The Coal Strike.

Following a succession of vain attempts

to bring about a settlement between the coal miners and the coal owners the Miners’ Federation have

at length decided to take a ballot on the terms submitted by the coal owners, supplemented, of course, by the Government s offer of £10,C00,000 to facilitate a settlement. There appear to be good reasons for the hope that the vote taken will be in favour of terminating the strike, not only because a. two-thirds majority is requisite for its culmination, hut also because of Mr Llovd George's definite declaration that the Government’s offer of £10,000,000 will not -lie kept open indefinitely. There is also the fact that a considerable proportion of the miners themselves must be weary of their long period of inactivity, and the further fact that the strike funds have practically reached the point of exhaustion. The real reasons for the strike are to some extent at least clouded by the political issue. One prominent opposition journal puts the ease against the Government in strong and uncompromising terms: “Because,” so runs the indictment, “the Prime Minister could not keep faith with the coal miners, and has made the men en gaged in the industry distrust him ; because his foreign policy has temporarily ruined the British coal trade, and his treatment of it at home has set the two parties to it by the ears; because he would not ask the richer coal owners to reduce their profits, though the better-to-do miners were willing to cut their wages to help the worse paid ones; because he has calle 1 on thousands of workmen to accept, at an hour’s notice, wages on which no self-respecting man with a family <an live, and on a scale of reduction such as no household economy can stand: because he has talked the language of the class war, when there was not a scrap of reason for using it, and then encouraged that war by summoning one part of tile nation to take arms against the other : because his onlv •policy on coal has been to run away from all t-ho difficulties and leave them for someone else to shoulder; and because when the issue of peace and war was trembling in the balance he could not produce a scheme of help and alleviation—it seems as if the eountrv had been muddl> d into a struggle, which no one wants, from which no one can benefit, and which a good half of the people cannot even understand. This is the Government of Mr Llovd George.” These are, of course, extreme views. The Prime Minister’s contention is. however, that the Government surrendered its control of the industry because it did not feel justified in saddling the loss which was 1-cring made upon the taxpayer, and this decision was rendered inevitable by last year’s strike, according to the Daily Chronicle, which adds: “At that time the industry was earning a windfall profit, which the Government claimed for the taxpayer. The miners said that the taxpayer should not have it, and claimed the whole for themselves; when this was refusd, they struck, and thereby not only wiped the profit out, but dried up its verv fv.ar.es. TV so acting they killed the principle of State control ; for it is clearlv impossible to ask the tax payer to cover the losses of the industry in bad times, when so recently his right to any portion of its profits in good times was denied and combated by the industry’s workers.'’ One effect of the coal strike has been to force to the front the in- problem of unemployment min-ation. i n the Homeland. In n leading article dealing with the Imperial Conference, which Mr Mnssev anrl the other overseas Prime Ministers have gone to London to attend, the Morning Post touched on the question of immigration. That consecrative journal, aft, r admitting the seriousness of unemployment in Great Britain, pointed out that “no country can permanently support an able-bodied population in enforced idVn*- s.” The position, as viewed by the Morning Post, is that the surplus populat 'm of the Homeland rims into millions, that all the schemes propounded tor the alleviation of unemployment have failed, and that the onlv solution is to he found in a log immigration scheme peopling the overseas dominions with Britain’s surplus men. women, and children. In this connection it is interesting to note the discussion by the Conference oi' the Returned

| Soldiers’ Association of the question of I immigration, more especially since there is a distinct possibility that the Returned Soldiers may presently emerge as one of the political parties in the Dominion. In the matter of immigration, however, such divergent views were expressed that it was impossible for anything approaching ! a unanimous decision to be reached, and i the matter was shelved for the present. \ The c'ause in the report which provoked discussion asserted that “whilst believing that the existence of New Zealand in the future depends upon a stream of immigration from the United Kingdom, and whilst ready to welcome these immigrants at any other time,” the Association feels “that until work and accommodation are available, immigration should be limited to the number for whom employment- anu accommodation are available.” Against this was forceful!v placed the view that no limitation of the present immigration policy be made, and this chiefly in view of the condition of things in the Homeland and the duty of the Dominion to come to the aid of the Mother Country in her hour of need. The division of opinion, therefore, was not a very wide one: all were agreed as to the ultimate point at issue being the wisdom of temporarily studying the tide of immigration until the financial crisis had passed and trade and industry had revived. Unfortunately, however, there are no good grounds for assuming, as some of the more optimistically minded among the returned soldiers have done, that improvement and revival will set in early: prospects point to a more or less prolonged period of depression. And all the while the unemployment difficulty is becoming accentuated in the Homeland. It is fair to assume that, notwithstanding the financial crisis and the high cost of living, the conditions of life in the Dominion 10-dav are better than in any other part of the British Empire. Nor should it be forgotten that one reason for the position that Canada occupies to-day is because her Government has encouraged the tide of immigration. Since the war, thanks largely' to the splendid record put up in the Homeland by her men at the front, the tide of immigration has set in towards the Dominion to an extent scarcely ever before experienced. It would be a thousand pities were that tide to be checked at its flood. The saving clause in the situation is to be found in a motion carried by the Conference when discussing the unemployment question,

and to this effect: “That this Conference calls upon all returned soldiers to join in fighting the trade depression by the practice of industry, thrift-, and good-will, and trusts that the same spirit will permeate all classes of the eommumtv.”

The Asiatic i nfiux.

The Returned Soldiers’ Conference tackled

a still more difficult and delicate question when it discussed the Asiatic influx.

Dominion immigration from the Homeland is purely a domestic matter, but Asiatic Immigration involves Imperial and International obligations, and has therefore to be reviewed on broader grounds. In tile opinion of the Conference Chinese and Indians alike were classed as undesirable immigrants, and the Government was urged to “take immediate steps” to prohibit any further Asiatic influx. Moreover, the Conference decided to send a cable to Mr Massey informing him that it was the wish of the Returned Soldiers’ Association that at the Imperial Conference “he should strenuously oppose the representations of the Indian delegates for equal rights for Indians in any part of the Empire.” It is not necessary at this stage to rehearse the arguments in favour of a white New Zealand further than to emphasise the fact that consistent with such a pica must go a policy for peopling the Dominion with white settlers. Anything like the dog-in-the-manger policy of a section of the Australian labour party is foredoomed to failure. Unless and until the overseas dominions are prepared to make room for a proportionate white population, there can be no effective resistance to the Asiatic influx. And for the same reason it is of paramount importance that the Asiatic influx be kept in check so that the Dominion and the Commonwealth be not spoiled as a field for British colonisation. It is these considerations which render of doubtful wisdom the absolute prohibition policy demanded by the Returned Soldiers Conference. In the first place, in view of the fact that the New Zealand population already includes a small percentage of Asiatics, it is questionable whether a policy of absolute prohibition would be practicable, short of deportation, an extreme which few would venture to demand. And secondly, in view of tile composition of the British Empire and the character and calibre of thousands of the Indian subjects, it may be questioned whether absolute prohibition would be consistent with justice. The question of colour and race is one of the most important of International questions at the present time, and the future of the peace of the world is largely involved in it. Under the circumstances it is questionable whether the best interests of the Dominion will be served bv pressing for so drastic a policy as that demanded by the Returned Soldiers’ Association. Probably the end in view will better he achieved by a tightening up of the existing restrictions rather than by clamouring for the absolute prohibition of Asiatic immigration.