THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1909. SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EMPIRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9607, 29 September 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1909. SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EMPIRE.

The tilowing pervasiveness of Empire sentiment throughout the British dominions just now gives pointed interest to the notable debate on the second reading of the South Africa Bill in the House of Commons last month; the more so because the theme was a high triumph of Empire racial fusipn and the speeches upon it expressed finely Imperial sympathy with Empire-building. The South African Union, in Mr Balfour's words, is "one of the most important events in the history of the Empire, one of the great landmarks of Imperial /policy." There suggested themselves difficulties of language, local constitution, local jealousies, difficulties arising oat of the war and of the race-difference "which I declare," Mr Balfour added, "any statesman looking at the thing beforehand and prophesying the result would have said made it absolutely impossible to carry through the thing at all." "Whatever opinions," Baid Mr Ba 1four, "we hold as to the past, everybody looking back at that past, will, I am confident, agree with me that this Bill is the most wonderful issue out of all those divisions, controversies, battles, and outbreaks, tha devastation and horrors of war, the difficulties of peace. J do not believe the world shows anything like ix in whole history." And the House of Commons cheered. With similarly generous candour, Mr Lyttelton the ex-Colonial Secretary, confessed that the Liberal Government's speedy restoration of responsible go vernment in South Africa so so vn after the war had justified itsc-lf against the opposition of his own party and "did obtain speedier and more spontaneous goodwill of the Dutch race than anybody could have anticipated—and it is only fair and just to say so." The Dutch, as far as that goes, were active in promoting federation under the Crown. Judged by conditions, it was a greater task than had been attempted in a similar way anywhere else, even than had to be confronted in Canada, where there were two races, certainly, but peoples who had long been at peace among themselves and had even been consolidated by foreign attack and internal rebellion That Dutch and English should be able to come together so soon afcer the bitter war and coolly, methodically, plan out a constitution providing for closer union than that of either Canada or Australia, in which all the obstacles to harmonious national housekeeping were smoothed out, is a wonderful feat in statesmanship, and an equally wonderful tribute io the

ridsh model of government and the implicit faith which the British Empire inspires even in those whom it has so recently had to subdue by force ufarms. And in this sense it was regarded, with inconsiderable exceptions, by Conservatives and Liberals alike. The one sharp test to which Imperial political trustfulness was put was that of accepting the disfranchisement of the natives — except those who already have it in Cape Colony, and from whom it may be revoked on a two-thirds vote of the united Parliament. It is conceivable that a few years ago the Liberal and Radical digestion would have found this a tough morsel, and that there would have been not a little preaching about the equality of the human kind and our duty to our coloured brother. More recently, however, several separate causes have co-operated to inspire a different view. There is increasing appraciation of the danger of putting two equally strong coachmen "on the box, each pulling a rem," as it was aptly phrased by Mr Balfour, who impressively recalled that the relation between white peoples and the races of Africa (whether in their original home or transplanted to the West Indies or America), constituted a problem "of the most extraordinary difficulty and com ■ plexity," one that is entirely new, one in which black constitutionally vigorous and capable of increasing in numbers in contact with white civilisation have to be dealt with "by peoples determinedly attached to all the conditions of constitutional liberty." And there is finally and conclusively recognition that the colonial peoples k- ow best. Especially where guaran'ees are specifically given, as in this Instance, that the natives shall have ; heir land* reserved to them, that th y shall be represented by four of the eight nominated senators, that th°y shall be safeguarded against the sale of liquor, and in every respect that may reasonably be provided for ba treated as wards of the nation, ns minors It is a matter of very pilp'...le white selfpreservation, after aIL There are six and a hal' millions of oloured people in South Africa, aul were these to be governed by "an absolute and permanent oligarchy nf a million people?" asked Sir Charles Dilke. The real question is, of course, whether the million whites are to be governi d by the six and a half million coloured people. Even members who reluctantly saw the "natives" debarred from membership, and in most oises from the franchise, foresaw that the other course would not do and agreed with Mr Asquith that it was best to leave it to South Africa to say whether, when, and how far these disabilities should be lifted. In spite of a little philanthropical indignation on the part of politiciam who see no coloured problem in England, the bill was triumphantly passed, and South Africa given the Constitution it l «ad made for itself.