SOUTH AFRICA

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2586, 21 August 1909, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICA

JNSON BILL PASSED BY HOUSE

OF COMMONS

NOTABLE SPEECH BY MR ASQUITH.

United Press Association— Copyright

(Received August 20, 10.35 p.m.) LONDON, August 20.

The South African Bill passed through committee. Mr. Balfour supported Mr. Asquith’s fesistance to Radical and Laborite amendments concerning the color bar. The Bill was later read a third time, Mr. A. Lupton being the only dissentient.

Mr. Asquith, in commending Parliament’s yielding to the considered judgment of South Africa, said lie hoped that the views strongly expressed in the House of Commons, practically without any dissent, would induce the Union Parliament, sooner or later — sooner, rather than later —to spontaneously relax what the majority •of the House of Commons regarded as an unnecessary restriction upon the electoral rights and eligibility of our native fellow subjects in South Africa. He added that the House of Commons wished the present magnificent experiment all possible success.

Mr. W. H. Long, on behalf of the Opposition, endorsed in the strongest and most cordial way Mr. Asquith’s speech as representing the whole House of Commons. (Cheers.)