"THE PROBLEM OF THE COMMONWEALTH"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2856, 22 August 1916, Page 6

"THE PROBLEM OF THE COMMONWEALTH"

Sir,—As Mr. Curtis has loft Wellington, 1 reply to Mr. Bell's questions. : la Chapter XIX of "The Problem of the Commonwealth" on the Dependencies he will find that .Ur. Curtis considers the government of the Dependencies one of the most serious diificulties ivhicli have to bo met in solving the problem now confronting the Commonwealth, that the people of the Dominions cannot share in the control of their foreign affairs with those of the British Isles unless they are ready to sliare also in the task of governing the great Dependencies, the Jong and difficult task of . training those peoples to govern themselves, and that the peoples of India and Egypt 110 less than those of the British' Isles and Dominions must be gradually schooled to tile management of their national affairs. Mr. Curtis proposes to deal with India in detail in the first section of Part II of "The Commonwealth of Nations," part I of which has just been publisned in. London, and from Australia he is proceeding to India to make a further study ot the subject on the spot.. In his address on Sunday night on "East and West," Mr. Curtis explained to us clearly that there could he no fusion between East and West, and pointed out the evil effects of pouring the new wine of modern European ideas into the old bottles of a static Oriental civilisation. Mr. Curtis therefore does not advocate the uniting of the Asiatic and Anglo-Saxon blood, nor does he propose at present to grant full Imperial franchise to the coloured races of the Empire, whicE are not yet ripe for self-government,' but only to transfer tho' government of the Dependencies to an Imperial Parliament from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is to bo' hoped that tho future experience of tho British Empire will be that the European and Oriental races will not amalgamate, that neither race will ceaso to : exist, that neither will reduce tho other to subjection, but that the coloured races will gradually under tho guidance of tho whites learn to govern themselves, and that eventually white, brown, yellow, and Black will sharo tho full freedom for which five millions of British citizens are lighting £o-<lay. Mr. CurtTFs last ,word to' us was that we are the trustees rather than the rulers of tho Coloured races, and tliat it is for the people of tho Dominions to assumo that trusteeship conjointly with thoso of the British Isles. —I am, ctc., H. F. VON HAAST. August 18.