THE EMPIRE'S NATIVE POPULATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 17, 15 October 1917, Page 7

THE EMPIRE'S NATIVE POPULATION

AN AFTEE-WAR PROBLEM.

Mr. Wilson Fox, M.P. (secretary of the Empire Resources Development Committee), replying to an" inquiry by the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society especially with reference to tho policy to bo pursued in connection with the maintenance of tlie rights of native races, says it is not possible to reduce to a few Bimple formulae tho conditions which should govern the commercial and financial policy of tho Empire in relation to any of its component parte. J-ho circumstances of one territory diftor so muoh from those of another that m the view of the Committee each must be taken into account and dealt with separately. As regards the advancement ot the moral and material welfare of native populations, there is no difference of view. The committee has these matters at heart equally with tho society, and is of opinion that native rights should always be Tespected and supported, vvnat those rights in each it is the function of the colonial Government to dpfine, and when defined to protect. With regard to'tho development ot land in tropical regions, where natives show a disposition to develop the land under the encouragement of the colonial Government. every possible assistance should be afforded them to do so, and that production by natives should bo encouraged, by all available means. On tho other hand, where tho colonial Government is able and willing to put land at the disposition of Europeans, thero is no reason why natives should be denied -tliß opportunity of earning fsfir wages as labourers under conditions which can and should bo' carefully regulated and supervised by the local Government. With regard to State development and trading, in the interests both of good government and of commercial efficiency, it is highly desirable that all work of this character should bo dealt with by men who have no governmental responsibilities, ana that governmental and commercial executive functions in the Crown colonies should not be entrusted to tho same individuals. Subject to this condition the committee sees no reason in _ principle why tho State should not bo directly interested in selected commercial concerns, which would stand in no different position in relation to the government of the territory in which they operated from that occupied by a commercial undertaking in which, tho Stats had 110 direct interest. The committee considers it quite reasonable that in the natural development of the Empire as a whole the State should in the future retain for itself some of tho profits which now go into the pockecs of private individuals. This opinion is not confined to the tropical or 6iib-tropical dependencies, but the committee has never expressed any opinion as to the sums which might thus accrue to any national*exchequer.