407

A.—4

-19 June, 1911.] British and Foreign Shipping. [11th Day. Sir WILFEID LAURIER— cont. culty, and every one of us must comprehend the very careful and guarded way in which Lord Crewe has presented the case. There is the great Imperial aspect of the question; but this question would exemplify once more what, for my part, I feel very deeply upon, that in all these Imperial questions it is impossible to regulate them upon a common general system; they must be guided and governed by local circumstances. Nothing is more true than that, and this very thing emphasizes it very forcibly. Sir Joseph Ward has very properly said, " We are most anxious not to do anything in our Dominion which would " impair the spirit of loyalty of the native population in India, or which would " put any difficulty in the way of His Majesty's Government in maintaining the " good relations which happily exist in India "; but at the same time the fact remains that the moment Asiatic people come into our Dominions to compete with our own labour there is a disturbance of the common conditions which, if allowed to go on, would very seriously jeopardise the British Empire. How is the matter to be solved ? Lord Crewe has put the case very fairly and very moderately. He has asked two things only to be done by the oversea Dominions, as T understood him, first of all that no serious obstacle should be put by the Dominions in the way of Asiatics and Indians coming into the different Dominions. Well, I know from my experience in my country, Sir Joseph Ward, I think, knows it in his, and Australia and South Africa know 7 it in their respective Dominions, that the moment Asiatic labour is allowed to come indiscriminately into competition with white labour there is a disturbance. It is not on account of the prejudice of colour. The prejudice of colour exists undoubtedly, but it is not a very serious factor. As Sir Joseph Ward stated this morning, the Asiatic has been accustomed to a civilisation utterly different from our own, perhaps a civilisation superior to our own, and in some respects I am prepared to concede it may be superior to our own; but the broad fact remains that, under that civilisation of ages, the Asiatic working-man can work for a wage for which a white man cannot work and live, and keep his respectability. That has been the Condition everywhere where Asiatic labour has come into competition with white labour, not only in the countries represented here, but in California and everywhere else where it has taken pla.ce. Ido not know what the remedy is. It may be the remedy is to keep, as Sir Joseph Ward said, every race to its own zone; but how it is to be reached Ido not know. For my part, I speak for the Government of Canada, I recognise the moderation of the views presented by Lord Crewe, that these men should be treated with respect and not be discouraged. But they cannot be encouraged to come, because if we were to encourage them we would create very serious remonstrances. As far as they go the conditions that exist have to be respected as far as they can be, but I do not know that we can go much further. Lord Crewe has gone further, and said that the Indians already in the self-governing Dominions should be accorded all the privileges of British subjects. They are accorded all the rights of British subjects so Ur as I know; at all events they are in my country, though I know that Mr. Harcourt has received from British Columbia, in Canada, representations from the Indians who are at the present time settled there, representing to him that they are not treated as British subjects. That is a confusion in their minds. They are accorded all the rights which are inherent to British subjects; but there are many rights which they claim and which they ha,ve not, and which they suppose to be inherent to British subjects. For instance, they have not the right of giving a vote, but the right of the franchise is not a right inherent to every British subiect. We saw a procession, 40.000 strong, on Saturday of British subjects who are not voters and who have no right to vote. Sir JOSEPH WARD : Some who were there have, when they are in New Zealand. Sir WILFEID LAURIER : Some of them have not, Therefore, I say it is a confusion on the part of these people to say that they are not treated as British subjects. They are. They have all the rights inherent in British subjects, but there are to the exercise of those rights certain conditions attached, which are matters of municipal and local legislation, and which must be main-

52—A. 4.