CHAP. 111] THE CONFERENCE OF 1911 1521
admit, and he recognized the force both of the racial and the
economic objections. The racial feeling as such was partly
mental and partly physiological : its existence could not
be denied if it could not be explained. But he emphasized
the fact that in most respects the less a white man has indi-
vidually to be proud of, the prouder he is apt to be of his
whiteness, and the more he considers himself entitled to
look down upon people of a coloured race. He reminded
his audience of the great traditions of India, and of the
intellectual and religious greatness of the Indian people, and
he laid stress on the loyalty of India. What was needed was
a more sympathetic understanding ; he would try to explain
to India the position of the Dominions, and he asked the
Dominions to consider the position of India. The unsatis-
factory treatment of Indians in the Dominions was a constant
source of difficulty, all the more formidable as self-govern-
ment in India proceeded.
Lord Crewe therefore asked that, while restricting immigra-
tion, the entrance of non-immigrant Indians should be
facilitated and freed of difficulties, and that when Indians
were lawfully domiciled (as in one Dominion for over two
hundred years) all care should be taken to respect their
caste feelings, as, for example, in connexion with prison
treatment. A really united Empire could not exist so long
as India and the Dominions were at variance, and the Mother
Country was involved in the disputes.
Sir J. Ward ! at once expressed his sympathy with India,
but defended his desire to stop the competition of Lascar
crews on vessels trading between Australia and New Zealand
on economic and social grounds. The competition of such
crews was ruining the lines which employed well-paid white
labour, and those lines could not continue unless the laws
regulating the payment of labour were repealed or they
were allowed to evade those laws by registration elsewhere ;
neither of these alternatives was possible, and the Govern-
ment of New Zealand must endeavour to save the, white crews.
His Shipping Bill? indeed penalized by a 25 per cent. tax
* Cd. 5745, pp. 399 seq. * Above, pp. 1211-5.
