The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1923. FENCES AGAINST COLOURED RACES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17169, 12 October 1923, Page 6

The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1923. FENCES AGAINST COLOURED RACES.

The Asiatic exclusion policy favoured by the white British Dominions will certainly be discussed during the sessions of the Imperial Conference. It may be anticipated that the Indian delegates will raise the issue, and press for the recognition of racial equality within the Empire. It is to be hoped that they will be answered, not with fine phrases, but with a definite intimation that what they desire will not be conceded. In Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa there is-a determination not to permit the unrestricted influx of Asiatic races. Their doors are hospitably open to their own kith and kin, but none of these countries desires the presence of Asiatics. In an article in “The Observer,’’ Mr St. Nihal Singh, an Indian journalist and author, refers to the likelihood of a conflict of opinion between the Indian and other delegates on migration within the Empire. He criticises the disposition to discuss that question as if the Empire consisted merely of white people, who were free to fence in wide areas of the world just as they pleased. The exclusion of Jndians is galling to every Indian able to think politically, as well as to unlettered Indians. The treatment of the so-called coloured races is of greater interest to Britain, says Mr Singh, than the transplanting of some of her surplus population to such fenced areas, tier pursuit of that policy kindles wrath in the breasts of Japanese, Chinese, and other Eastern races, and fans the fires of hatred, creating the grave problem of armaments, which affects all the units of Empire. The Conference will have to discuss armaments, and he thinks that it is quite likely that Australia will hold that the menace to herself has been averted. The decision regarding Singapore and kindred matters should, therefore, he shelved. Succeeding Conferences will, however, be compelled to decide them unless Britain’s attitude toward the coloured races is modified and the causes of friction removed.

Mr St. Nihal Singh lias expressed the views of the Indians who arc striving for racial equality. The trouble is that these men will not admit tiiat racial equality is not a mere matter of politics and colour. The difference goes down to fundamentals. The whites who have entered India have improved the condition of the people, and have given the Indians rights and privileges and personal security which their ancient civilisation had never dreamed of. India and the Indians have benefited through the presence of the whites. On the other hand, it cannot he argued that Occidental countries have benefited by the invasion of Asiatics. The Asiatic colonies in Europe and America are convincing proofs that such immigration as they represent is opposed to the moral and material welfare of the countries receiving it. The Imperial Conference should speak with no uncertain voice on this subject.