A.—s

36

permitted to apply directly to the Permanent Mandates Commission when they wished to make their complaints known. That is true. I know that all the mandatory Powers are actuated by the most generous motives towards the populations whose territory they administer. " Governments may have the best intentions, but when it comes to applying the rules they lay down it is another matter. Like tho husband, in the play, tho Government is always the last to know what is happening, and when tho population has complaints to make you ask them to communicate, their complaints through the intermediary of tho mandatory Power; in other words, you ask them to communicate their grievances to the very persons of whom they complain. I have already pointed, out that this creates a very delicate situation. " Some one had pointed out that in the British Empire any subject of the Empire was entitled to appeal to the King; but it is well known that this right is a legal fiction. A person wishing to make a petition is not admitted to the presence of the King himself; he is obliged to apply to a whole series of officials before reaching tho King. Now, in these, distant territories a petition will have to be handed to the local Administrator : this means that the complaint will have to be communicated to the very person about whom the complaint is made. In these circumstances the chances arc that the complaint will never reach the King. " Some other procedure should therefore be found in order to safeguard the essential rights of the populations. . . ." The Hon. Sir James Allen's speech contained the following : — " I wish to say just one word about the publicity question. I only want to refer to one piece of procedure, which I believe has been approved by the Council, by which the Permanent Mandates Commission have to hold a public meeting before their report is submitted to the Council. Might I ask tho Council to reconsider that piece of procedure. It is not satisfactory, in my own judgment it would bo far better that the report of the Mandates Commission should bo sent direct to tho Council without a publicity meeting, and with the comments attached of the; mandatory country which they desire to attach, together with the comments of the Permanent Mandates Commission. . . . " 1 think the report has adopted the soundest plan of procedure —that any petition or report from the population should come through the mandatory Power; and 1 wish to warn the Assembly, as I think I did last year, of the very grave danger of permitting petitions to come from the Native population or others direct to the Permanent Mandates Commission without their having been seen by the mandatory Power. " Our experience in Samoa is to the following effect : That the Natives, if left alone, would probably honestly petition what they felt. But the Natives are, not left alone. The Natives are influenced by agitators, who, for purposes of their own, would very likely induce the Native population to send a petition to the Permanent Mandates Commission which would not really represent the feelings of tho Natives if they had not been so influenced. Therefore it is necessary that any petition should come, not direct to the Mandates Commission, but through the mandatory Powers." Sir Edgar Walton (South Africa) spoke as follows : — " I was rather astonished by the solicitude shown by my friend, the delegate from India, in the mandate of the South-west Territory in South Africa, because in point of fact, if 1 am correctly informed, there is not a single Indian in that territory. But that is nothing to do with the South African Government. No Indians went to the South-west Territory during the German occupation, and none have gone there since. So that, so far as the countrymen of my friend are concerned, they are not interested in that particular part of the Dominion. But I should like to say, as perhaps it is not known, that tho racial difficulties in that territory are very great. In the first instance, you have the, aboriginal inhabitants—you have the Natives, the barbarian Natives, of whom there are a large number ; you have also a half-bred population, half Hottentot and half European, of whom there are also a considerable number, who are different from the barbarian population ; you have also the German settlers who were left there after tho country was conquered by the South African troops ; and you have British settlors. So it is rather fortunate that for the time being, anyhow, we have no Indian settlers as well, because wo have the problem of dealing with four races already, and it would be complicated, as I think every one will agree, if wo had the addition of any others. . . . " There is another point which my friend mentioned which might lead to some misconception. He spoke of a statement made, by General Smuts to the effect that the ' C ' mandates, as affecting the South-west Territory, amounted to virtual annexation. That is correct. As far as the condition of the people is concerned, and as far as their government is concerned, it is virtually annexation, because they are put under the same rules, the same regulations, and the same laws as the people in our own country. We cannot do more for people than that; we cannot do better for them than treat them as we treat our own people. That is precisely what General Smuts meant by saying that it was virtually annexation. That is the, object of the Government. . . ." Lord Robert Cecil (South Africa) then addressed the Assembly, of whose speech the remarks chiefly relevant to the subject of mandates were as follows : — " I should, like to add my voice to those who have preceded me in praise of the work done by the Permanent Mandates Commission. lam sure every one who has studied their work will be at one on that point. My friend Sir James Allen thought there might be a slight modification in their procedure, and any suggestion coming from such an authority as Sir James Allen must always bo received with the. greatest attention on a subject of this kind. But at the same time 1 would ask him to consider whether, on tho whole, the advantages of a public meeting of the Commission do not outweigh the disadvantages. It is a matter to be carefully considered ; but my opinion is that, on the whole, the public meeting was successful, and did establish the work of tho Commission upon a sound and satisfactory basis.- . . ."