BRITISH POLITICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1721, 11 April 1906, Page 3

BRITISH POLITICS.

SOUTH AFRICAN TROUBLE. By, telegraph, P*ess A&s’n, Copyright London, April 9.

Mr Lyttelton, in a letter to the press, in reply (o Mr Churehill’a speech, Bays the eduettion tsst required at the CRpe was omitted from the Transvaal oonstitntion as possibly prejudicial to Boers, Burghers were entitled to voto for the Volksraad and retain the suffrage without further qualification. The constitution was practioally manhood suffrage, excluding only the indigent. The proportion of voters to the population was one-third compand with one-fourth at the Cape and one-fifth in Nits!. , f The Spectator eulogises the attitude of the great self-governing oolouies. Clear and temperate in tone, tho colonial press is upholding the true doctrine of Imperial relations. Autonomy once given cannot be whittled away. The Spectator ad Is that Lord Elgin was not justified in interfering with the court martial.

The Times’ Johannesburg correspondent says that the hands of the clock of conciliation have been put back many years by the events of the last few months, Boer leaders, encouraged in the belief that they will obtain political supremacy, are unlikely to oalmly watoh their hopes deliberately raised by the Liberal Government dashed at the eleventh hoar. If the Government is resolved to uphold british interests, it must expect a recrudescence of racial antagonism in the bitterest form. The Spectator, oommenliog on Sooth African affairs, says: '■ Unjustified on the faots, aod-wholly unjustified by Imperial ' practice, Lord Elgin’s interference haß oartainly dons no good. Mr Churchill’s remark that autonomy was given too readily will not lead to soothe matters.” The Times says that British South Africa has welcomed Mr Churchill’s admission that the distribution of elcoloral areas Bboold be by voters and not by population on a scientific fair working basis, and is unpoiturbod at his suggestion that tho existing franchise ought to be widened. Toe Government’s attitude in the pa't unaeoais krily created a f.eliog of soreness on the part of the B-itisb, while enoouraging the Boers to proceed on purely racial lines.