146
criticism of the principles embodied in the Australian Immigration Restric- tion Bill, and does not imply any denial of Australia's right to control purely Australian affairs. The exercise of that right would not directly effect the conditions under which the industries and operations of the rest of the Empire are conducted. But my Committee submit that the first effect of the Postal Bill as now amended by the Australian Senate must be to alter those conditions very seriously, to embarrass the shipping industry, which is a most important branch of British commerce, and to dislocate the Imperial system of communi- cations in à measure altogether disproportionate to the benefit to be derived from it by the small seafaring community of Australia. My Committee believe it to be evident that the Imperial system of communications is a matter for the control of the Empire as a whole, and that no self-governing Colony can reasonably claim by virtue of such self-government to prescribe the conditions under which all other parts of the Empire shall have postal access to it. Still less can such a Colony claim to prescribe in this behalf conditions which have the effect of crippling substantially the marine service of the nation for the performance of its functions in respect of other parts of the Empire. It is obvious that, under the conditions that the Australian Senate soeks to impose, it may be impossible to conclude mail contracts on the terme hitherto obtained; and unless the Commonwealth be prepared to make good the difference in cost, or unless that policy be abandoned under which it has been hitherto sought to make the mail service of the Empire self-supporting, all classes of the King's subjects inhabiting other parts of His Dominions may have to pay an increased rate for postal communications. Such prejudice to those communications as must inevitably result would, in the opinion of my Committee, be most retrogressive and greatly to be deplored.
4. I am, therefore, to crave that his Excellency the Governor in Council may be pleased to represent these matters to his Excellency the Viceroy to the end that he may make to the Imperial Government such communication as he may in Council consider to be most likely to prevent the Imperial sanction of the amended Bill in question.
147
3. In fact, the arguments against the clause appear to be based on the assumption that other parts of the Empire have a vested interest in the continuance of the Australian subsidy, on the ground that its withdrawal may possibly involve additional expenditure on their own part and that the Imperial Government would be justified in bringing pressure to bear on the Commonwealth in the interests of the other parts of the Empire by advising His Majesty to exercise His power of disallowance in regard to the measure under consideration. In this view Mr. Chamberlain cannot acquiesce. The arrangement for a consolidated mail contract is a purely voluntary one, and if one of the parties, after due notice, declines to renew its obligation or attaches conditions to its renewal which the other parties cannot accept, it cannot be maintained that such action affords any just ground of complaint.
4. It is no doubt regrettable that the action of the Commonwealth Parliament in exercising its right to lay down certain conditions by which its Government must in future be bound in arranging for the carriage of mails, may lead to the breaking up of the mutually beneficial joint arrangement now in existence, but that contingency by itself affords no ground for impugning or limiting the right.
5. The policy of such a condition as that embodied in the clause to which exception is taken, is, of course, not one to which His Majesty's Government can subscribe, but, in Mr. Chamberlain's view, it is clearly a matter in which the Commonwealth Parliament is within its right, and the mere fact that it may result in inconvenience to His Majesty's Government or other parts of the Empire, cannot be regarded as a sufficient reason for the exercise of the power of disallowance in regard to the measure in which it is enacted any than the imposition of a customs duty on goods imported from other parts of the Empire would be a sufficient reason for disallowing a Tariff Act.
more
6. A copy of the correspondence has been forwarded to the Governor- General for the information of His Ministers, with an intimation that His Majesty will not be advised to exercise His power of disallowance in regard to the Act.
I am, &c.,
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
गय
Reference :-
C.O.885
17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
10862.
SIB,
No. 3,
COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE.
Downing Street, April 4, 1902.
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 18th and 27th February on the subject of the Post and Telegraph Act, 1901," recently passed by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
"
14
2. The objections urged in those letters to section 16 of the Act appear to rest on a misapprehension of the scope and effect of that clause. It does not appear to Mr. Chamberlain that it purports in any way to lay down the conditions on which the rest of the Empire is to have postal access to Australia; or to assume control over Imperial communications in general; or that it penalises the carriage of mails on steamers worked by coloured labour; or "seeks to dictate to the owners of steamers which visit "Australian shores, but which are owned outside of Australia, how their steamers are to be worked or what description of labour they shall employ on board.*
It merely states that Australia will not contribute its own money or give any special facilities for the encouragement of communication carried on by the aid of a special class of labour. It is obvious that there is the widest difference between imposing penalties on steamers employing coloured labour, and merely refusing such steamers any special employment or aid, pecuniary or otherwise. It can scarcely be maintained that Australia is bound to renew a contract for the carriage of its mails when the service for which the subsidy was granted has ceased to be acceptable to the people of the Commonwealth; and the clause now in question appears to do no more than assert the right of the Commonwealth to the control of its own
money.
Nos. 1 and 2.
39211.
SIR,
No. 4.
C. P. LUCAS.
GENERAL POST OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received October 25, 1906.) [Answered by No. 5.]
General Post Office, London,
October 24, 1906.
I AM directed to refer to your letter of the 17th of April 1903, No. 11090/1903, enclosing a copy of a despatch† addressed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor-General of Australia on the subject of the Mail Service between the United Kingdom and Australia, and the decision of the Australian Government not to be parties to any contract for the conveyance of mails unless it contained a condition that only white abour was to be employed on board the packets. The Postmaster-General has recently observed statements in the Press to the effect that the Senate of the Commonwealth has now decided to offer preferential treatment of British goods solely upon the condition that they are imported in British ships manned by white crews. This further restriction against the employ- ment of coloured labour would certainly be prejudicial to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which, as the Secretary of State for the Colonies is aware, is under contract with the Postmaster-General for the conveyance of mails to and from the Commonwealth until the 31st of January 1908, and possibly for longer.
* Not printed.
† [Cd. 1639.]
K 2