SOUTH AFRICAN UNION

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 26

SOUTH AFRICAN UNION

♦ : DISCUSSION IN PARLIAMENT. LONDON, Auguefe 17. The second reading ol the South 4-fricj. Ucion Bill" was carried without a d»feion, and referred to a committee of the whole House. Sir C. Dilke deplored the erection of a terrible bar against the coloured people, who but for :heir descent would be eligible for membership in the new Parlia.ment. Colonel Seely (Under-secretary for the Colonies) warned the House that if the words "of European descent" were struck out the Union* would be smashed. Sir A. Lyttelton (ex-Colonial Secretary) said he regretted the colour bar, but there was nothing to' prevent the Union Parliament retracing this step. Mr Balfour remarked that. he intended to vote for anything the Government eaid was necessary for the success of the bill, which he „ characterised as a wonderful issue out of all the divisions, controversies, battles, bloodshed, devastation/ and horrors of war He did not believe the world 'had shown anything "like it in the whole of history.— (Load cheers.) Mr Asquith said he believed that union would prove the harbinger of a more enlightened and generous native * policy, but interference Irom the Motherland-^a spasmodic, capricious, perhaps sentimental interference — would be. a very much worse policy in the <nterests of the natives themselves. ' Colonel Seely said he did not believe that tbe*Union Parliament would attempt to interfere with the Cape coloured franchise. If it did, the Cape representation was strong enough to prevent it. August 20. The South African Bill has passed through committee in the" House of Commons. Mr Balfour supported Mr Asquith's resistance of the Radical and Labourite i amendments concerning the colour b"ar. The bill was later read a third* time, Mr Lupton being the only dissentient. ! Mr Asquith, in commending Parlia- \ nvent's action in yielding to the considered i judgment of South Africa, said he. hoped that the views which - had been strongly expressed in the House *of Commons practically without any dissent would induce the Union Parliament sooner or later — sooner rather than later— to spontaneously relax what th« majority of the House of Commons regarded as unnecessary restrictions upon the electoral rights and eligibility of our native fellow subjects in South Africa. He added* that the House of Commons wished the .present , magnificent experiment all possible saccees. Mr Long, on behalf of the Opposition, endorsed in the strongest and most cordial way Mr Asquith's statesmanlike speech, representing: the whole of the House of Common*. — (Cheers.)