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11th Day.] Indian Emigration and Immigration. [19 June, 1911. EARL OF CREWE— cont. in a moment; but it is, of course, a very real difficulty, and it is accentuated by the abandonment which we now see on the part of many of some of the old theories of political economy. Many have now abandoned, for instance, the theory that labour can be regulated simply by the conditions of supply and demand. There are many nowadays, too, who have abandoned the theory that the remuneration of labour need necessarily stand in any very close relation to the value of the work done, and that being so, it is clear that the rivalry of cheap labour such as may be introduced from India seems a greater hardship than it did in the days of a harsher political economy which was generally accepted in Great Britain, and more or less all over the world, during the greater part of the nineteenth century. Now this labour objection would apply, and indeed in some parts of the world has applied, equally to the influx of any kind of labour depending on a lower standard of comfort, whatever its colour may be, whether it be white or whether it be brown or black ; and all over the world we are certainly approaching, if we have not already arrived at, the time when organized labour will seriously object to the importation of any kind of lower paid labour, whatever its colour and whatever its nationality, if it is of a competitive character. This is one of the main of difficulties, indeed, which is connected with this question of Indian immigration. It is quite separate from and ought not to be in any way confused with the question of what we call the colour bar. The two are often intermixed, and sometimes I think objections which are really founded on one are made to rest upon the other. But as to the existence of the colour difficulty in its crudest form there can, of course, be no question whatever. This question of colour affects individuals in this country, and I have no doubt the same applies to all the Dominions, in a very varying degree. Some people feel a natural sympathy and kindness towards the men of a coloured race. On the other hand other men, very often equally humane and with as high an ethical standard as the others, feel an instinctive distaste or even dislike to men of a different race. That is a matter which cannot be argued upon, but it is an undoubted fact, partly, I daresay, physiological as well as mental. Now certainly I am not at all disposed to underrate the objections of a certain kind which are felt by many to a close intercourse between the white and the coloured races. If we consider, for instance, the question of marriage, the question of intermarriage between races is one which is so far singular in its application to this subject that the disapproval of marriage of a white man with a native woman, and still more the marriage between a white woman and a man of a native race, affects superior people to the greatest extent. It is one of those prejudices or beliefs which becomes stronger as people become more educated and more generally superior, and in this respect it differs from most of the easy and foolish prejudices which are held against the native races. lam disposed to go so far as to say that in most respects the less a white man has individually to be proud of, the prouder he is apt to be of his whiteness, and the more he considers himself entitled to look down upon people of a coloured race. So far as my travels about the world, which have not been inconsiderable, have led me to suppose, I should certainly go so' far as to say that there is no man who is more convinced of his superiority to the members of the native races, however cultured or however superior in other respects they may be, than the mere bar-loafer whose mental horizon is habitually clouded by whisky. Now there is no doubt, I think, that our national British traits lead us into some temptation and difficulty in this matter. I remember hearing of a witty observation made many years ago, which was to the effect that a Frenchman begins by having a good opinion of himself, but an Englishman begins by having a bad opinion of other people. Ido not know whether Sir Wilfrid, who knows both races so well, would be disposed in any way to confirm that statement; but that being so, if it is so, shows, I think, what our national temptations are when we come to consider the claims and the merits of people of a race entirely different from our own. What those claims and merits are are set out in the words which are quoted on the first page of this memorandum which has been circulated, among the observations made by Mr. Chamberlain in his address to the Conference in 1897. Those words are, if I may venture to say so, well worth weighing. I will not attempt to enlarge upon or in any way to develop what Mr. Chamberlain there so admirably said. I might,