dəsmagamaani mtamutianas en estan inte upphlets, MTUME MUSSARE độ nhkan cintarinendused in cutii in jou tandis
could not be the only or ultimate principle for determining the territ
ory's future. He then laid down what he held to be the right principle
governing such cases, i.e. one must distinguish between two types of
possessions, those "originally occupied for settlement" which we ruled
for the benefit of the population in them, and those "originally
occupied for purely belligerent purposes" which were held in order to
contribute to the defence of the Empire as a whole. In the former,
"local considerations occupy the place of paramount importance" and the
"veto of the population ought to be of enormous weight"; in the latter,
Imperial considerations must be of paramount importance and local
opinion must be subordinate to these, and the inhabitants "cannot
complain of injustice...if this is so". If the principle of local
opinion alone were to be applied, he went on, it would be fatal to our
Imperial interests and, if carried to the point of a plebiscite, it would
in effect come to determining Imperial policy by such local votes.
Rosebery, for the Opposition, disclaimed any suggestion of a
plebiscite but reasserted that the opinion of the inhabitants of any
part of the Empire to be severed off should not be "so absolutely
disregarded" as appeared to be the case here; the people"should not be`
handed over like chattels to a foreign Power". Lord Granville espec-
ially attacked the Govt's repeated claim to have reason to believe the Heligolanders were satisfied without consulting them, or giving
Parliament any grounds for the belief. He admitted however that'reason of state' might justify the policy but in return HG were under a great
obligation to provide the maximum safeguards for the inhabitants and
he instanced the position of the yet unborn children of those islanders
who opted for British nationality.
The Colonial Secretary defended the case mainly on the basis of the guarantees, especially regabding nationality, conscription, native
law and custom and tariffs. Summing up, the Prime Minister replied that the only real way to know the inhabitants' opinions was in fact a pleb-
iscite which was alien to our traditions and fraught with dangers as a precedent. He had good reason for thinking the Heligolanders satis-
fied with the transfer and the terms of the Agreement but his cource
of information was confidential. He repeated with great emphasis his doctrine of the two types of possession given above, and declared that the doctrine of local consent urged by the critics would go far beyond
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