67

A.—6.

You will observe that we have promised Mr. Sastri that when our Federal franchise law comes up for revision we will take care: to see that Parliament is fully informed of his representations and wishes, and we will seek to have those representations and wishes given every consideration. It is probable: that the Dominion Franchise Act will come up for revision at the approaching session of Parliament. I told Mr. Sastri it was hardly probable it would come up last session, but that I thought it would come up next session. If the course we anticipate is followed, the Franchise Act will be referred to a committee of the House, and that committee will be in a position to hear any representations that may be made to it. If Committee from India sent to Canada, it will be given every Opportunity to discuss Question. My friends from India will have to decide for themselves what is likely to be most in their own interests in the matter of having a committee visit Canada and take up this matter anew. I say that for the reason that I am not so sure that Mr. Sastri's visit has made it easier for us to deal with this problem. I would put it in this way : Mr. Sastri's visit helped to direct the attention of the country to something which I imagine the greater part of tho country did not know anything about. I doubt if the majority of the people in Canada were aware that in the Province of British Columbia, for example, the Indians did not have the franchise. They may have known in the other provinces that they had the franchise, but the question of the few in British Columbia not having the franchise would hardly be known to any extent outside that province. Onco, however, Mr. Sastri began delivering his speeches the Labour Councils from one end of the country to the other began to receive communications from Labour organizations in British Columbia asking thorn to take care to sec that such standards as labour had won in British Columbia were maintained. The forces that were opposed to granting the franchise to Indians became organized in a way they had not been before. Whether that same result might follow the visit of a deputation from India I cannot say —it might or it might: not; but should our friends from India think it would help them to have a delegation come to Canada to confer on the subject we shall be most happy to appoint a corresponding group to meet and. confer with them. If it were their desire to have their delegation given an opportunity of meeting the: parliamentary committee to which the matter will be referred for consideration, I should be glad to see, if the: time of their visit so permitted, that they were given a chance: to meet the members of that committee and to confer with them at Ottawa. In other words, we would be only too happy ter give to any group which may come from India —any person she may send —the amplest opportunities to discuss with our public men all aspects of this particular question. I say this having regard to the method of approach Sir Tej has presented to us here. He has made it clear that the committee would come for the purpose of exploring avenues and ways and means to reach an ultimate result. Ho should recognize that wo may have to take time in this matter, but I would like him to believe that wo are sincere in hoping that we will bo able to meet his wishes. In seeking so to do we may have to proceed stop by step, but the Canadian people as a whole are, I am sure, really desirous of meeting our fellow British citizens from India in every reasonable particular. I have not the slightest doubt about that. Progress of India towards Self-government. Perhaps I. may bo permitted to say just one word in conclusion. Sir Tej spoke vory feelingly the other day about political freedom and the desires of India in the matter of self-government. When I was in India I heard a good deal of tho discussion that was going on. Let me say that I have a natural sympathy with the desires of a people to have the right to manage their own affairs. Were I a citizen of India —and this is what I felt most at that time —I shoulel feel above everything else that in India being a part of the British Empire there lay tin: surest guarantee that this desire for self-government will bo realized in the course of time in the manner which to India herself will be most effective and helpful. It is inconceivable that tho opinions represented at this table, the views of the different Dominions represented here, should not accord with aspirations of self-government. There is this, however, which I think we have to remember, and which those of us in tho Dominions have had occasion to realize : that our Dominions have boon peopled largely by citizens who have come out from the British Isles, and that those who have been most active in effecting reforms have themselves come with ideals which it had taken their ancestors many, many years to work out in this old land. Our struggle for responsible government in the Dominions was largely a continuation of the long struggle of several centuries which had taken place in the British Isles, and I think the evolution of self-government in the Dominions has become what it is largely because of the long process of political training through which in previous years the peoples of the British Isles had passed. For that reason I hope that our friends in India will appreciate: that here again time may be a helpful factor in the working-out of what, in tho long-run, in tho interests of India herself, will be the surest and the best guide to complete self-government. STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. Tribute to Presentation of Case for India. Mr. Bruce: Prime Minister, I would like to preface the few remarks I wish to make by congratulating the representatives of India on the very eloquent and temperate manner in which they stated tho case which they have to present. Attitude of Australia to Resolutions of Previous Conferences. This question is not one which vitally affects Australia as it does South Africa. I desire, however, to refer to the resolution on the position of Indians in the Empire which was adopted by the Conference of 1921. The resolution commenced by reaffirming the previous resolution of 1918, that the government of each community of the British Commonwealth should enjoy complete control of the composition, of its own population by moans erf restriction on immigration from any of the other communities. It then went on to recognize that there is an incongruity between India's position as