The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1914. PROBLEMS WE HAVE TO FACE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 26 November 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1914. PROBLEMS WE HAVE TO FACE.

To tho educated colored races, the restrictions placed upon them in the British dominions must appear unfair and galling (writes the Christchurch Star). The South African Union, for the first time in the history of the British EmI piru, definitely adopted as a constituItional principal a color distinction. Negroes and Asiatic peoples are to be—

'unless the constitution is changed —for ever excluded from the possibility of serving their country and King as representatives of their people in the South African Parliament. "The franchised black and yellow men of Cape Colony fwill retain the franeliise first accorded

to their race in 1853, and confirmed to tlicm, under very sensible provisions, when Cecil Rhodes was premier of the Cape, so long as they behave themselves, and continue to elect white men to represent them in the Provincial Assembly, . . . but it is laid down that a two-thirds majority of white members of the South African Parliament can disfranchise the colored folk of Cape Colony altogether." Sir Harry Johnston, from whom the above is quoted, , pointed out that in South Africa there are six millions of colored people against one and a quarter million whites; but already there are 300,000 educated 'blacks, and thanks to the missionary educational institutions there will soon be a million. What will happen when these colored people have imbibed British culture and British principles together with the "110 taxation without 'representation" theory ? In India., while 'the great mass of t'he people remain woefully ignorant anil subservient of th» iu;e of "caste," there is a growing m'id- • die-class of m?n and women who luu'e re ceived a European education and who ' have already exhibited a restlessness 'and discontent with tile present system of Government. Those people, with many references to the history of Great Britain and other European countries, ask indignantly why they should be taxed without their own consent and have no voice in the spending of their taxes. "On the face of it," says Sir Harry Johnston, ''the demand is unanswerable, except by the admission that they should be given a franchise which would enable them to elect representatives to provincial or national assemblies." But a still greater problem than the granting of constitutions to native races is the question of Asiatic immigration to British colonics. Here again the position must u'ppear most unfair to tin; colored man. Britishers are permitted concessions in Asiatic ' countries 011 more than equal footing with liini, and yet if an Asiatic desires to settle in a British colony he is practically prevented from doing so. The participation of India and Japan in the present war has accentuated this anomaly. Are the Japanese, for instance, going to help us in this war, • and then receive none of the spoils? Is it fair to use the Hindus to fight against the Germans and then refuse . to grant tiiein in their own country and ' in British dominion* the s;tme events as are granted to naturalised Germans fuul Aiisl-rians? The gallant soldiers of tin: Orient are helping us to fight 0 ir battles, and we are going to refuse ' them imitations to the peace banquet? l With the declaration of peace the. issue between the white, and colored races of the Empire becomes mow. complicated that ever, and it seems certain that British communities will have to assume a •more compromising attitude. Those blatant assertions of superic »' ty so readily put forth must cease, and a more tolerant position taken up. All endeavours should be in tlie direction of understanding the colored people, and not of insulting their race or intelligence. If the mixture of the white and yellow races, for instance, is fraught with serious consequences to both peoples, let tlii! white man frankly tell the yellow man of this great danger. There is no reason to believe, that the Japanese for instance, are not as anxious as w< are to preserve the. purity and ideals ol their race. They have not more desire .'than we have (y perpetrate the halfcaste with the vices of both races. With in the. liiinpire itself we should be prepared to deal with til,, colored subjects ol KingOeorg.} in a kindlier spirit than before, even granting to them when the> ■ are prepared to receive it the full right's * and privileges of the white people, 'for to quote Sir Harry. Johnston again: ""W hen the natives races of dill'erenl skin color from our own arc under oui direct rule, where they attain a cer tain degree of education, and their in difetrv has endowed them with property and rateable values, it must bo an im questioned axiom that they receive, v franchise to the same degree and on tie same terms as a white man in the samr country, and that in the allotment ol such franchise and its consequences—popular representation—there shall hi no distinctions of race and color. On the other hand, no ('..cession „( home or abroad ought to lie granted even at the point of the bayonet or the ■MKncss. J| lr conclusion of the. T.re. sent war will leave the Knipire ill a Weakened position, from which it will prooablv take ye;us to recover. Men an.l . money having spe||t lavisllU% s]l( . ' "'-I l>e m no position to nn.l'ertak. 1 ' rS or «tl.,nvi„, for many a 0n),,..'. • V"" I '' l '" ! ''Wpty 'P'" " , ' """Ox-rii dominions sfii] remain to „ filled, and „„ tts th'" ' , colore"/ t,M V* invit " Wlrs of Vow /e),hnd"l C "" A "* iraU * «>»<! A aland, therefore, afl'ord to -idoot a policy of repression and race ant-il "'»sm and not one of concession and ( mutual understanding?