THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8304, 6 December 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1906.

The trouble which has arisen between the United States and Japan, owing to the refusal of the State of California to insist! upon the admission of Japanese children into the publio schools of Sao Franoiso, appears to be as far from au amicable settlement as ever. The Federal Government at Washington is apparently desirous of meeting Japan, in a friendly manner, but is evidently doubtful of the efficacy of the law as it stands to compel California to observe the alleged treaty obligation, for additional legislation is spoken of in Washington. Whether such legislation could be carried through Congress is another matter, for it would be bitterly opposed by the member* from the Paoiflo Slope, who would certainly leave nothing undone to prevent it. In this they, would presumably be supported, both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, by the solid vote of the bouth, where the negro problem has placed the oolour question in the front rank of popular politics, and by the rest of the Democratic party, eager to make the most f of a popular cry. Nor is it probable that the 1 . Republican party could bring its full strength to bear on behalf of a oompuJsDry measure, for the November elections have shown the existence of a considerable Labour vote in the Republican strongholds, and to estrange this beyond hope of conciliation is the last thing which many of the Re publican Congressional representatives can desire, Nothing could have been more unfortunate . for Mr Roosevelt than this outbreak of anti-Japanese feeling in the Paoiflo States. In the conflict with California and its confederates he can

hardly hope to win, for it ia ouly the absence of a Japanese element in the greater part of the country and the consequent general ignorance of the Californian difficulty whijb can give him a majority in Codgresa on the question, and this majority is likely to collapse at any *ime undar the pressure cf an undoubtedly popular movement. For the average American is much more likely to put himself in the place of the Calif ornian than fu the plane of the Jap., and to make common hia own people than with coloured aliens. There would bo veiy little hope for American uaity were Ohio and New York lightly disposed to dragoon California il into submission by federal legislation. It ia evident, [from the necessity for additional iegialation, that the Federal Government of the United States has exceeded its constitutional power in ita treaty with Japan.

Finance depends on> policy, says the Saturday Review, London, and therefore it seems premature to discuss the propriety or impropriety of the proposed new Transvaal loan of £4,000,000 until we know what the new Transvaal Government is going to do with it. All asaertions in the newspapers about the allocation of £1,0,00,000 here and £1,000,000 there to war compensation or land settlement are nonsense, because the Government elected by toe new legislature will have the disposal ot the loan, and no one yet knows whether that Government will be formed by the Progressives, by Het Volk, or by the brothers J Solomon. Nor shall we know till next January, when the elections will be over; pending that event, it is safe to predict that the alluoa«ion of the loan will depend on whether we have a Dutoh or a British Government at Pretoria. JMeauwhilp. it is something to have got rid ot the sham millionaires' loan of £30,000,000. This loan of £30,000,000, of which the Rand magnates promised to underwxite £10,000,000, was not such a farce as some people supposo. If the Unionist Government had remained in power the restricted Lyttelton Constitution would be now in operation the mining industry would he in no unceitainty as to its labour supply, and we should probably be in the middle of a mining boom, lu such conditions the floating of a loan of £30,000,000 in three instalments would have been as easy as selling hot cnkes, and the magi uateß would not only have fulfilled their guarantee, bat have made money out of it. As it is, after six months of Radical government the'rateable value of Johannesburg has fallen £10,000,000, and the raining market is dead. No wonder that a modaqt £4,000,000 has to be substituted for £30,000,000. We only hope the colonists appreciate that au Under-Secretary of Mr Gburohiirs brand is a costly luxury.