§ MR. EDMUND ROBERTSONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in the year 1902, the Legislature of British Columbia passed an Act restricting immigration; whether the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs 1320 protested against it, in so far as it applied to Japanese subjects; whether the Act was in consequence disallowed by the Governor-General, with the sanction of the Imperial Government; whether an Act to the same effect was passed in 1903, and again disallowed; whether a Bill in similar terms has again been introduced; whether, if it becomes an Act, His Majesty's Government will again sanction its disallowance; and whether any correspondence on the subject can be laid upon the Table.
§ * MR. LYTTELTONThe answer to the first three sections of the hon. Member's Question is in the affirmative. I have no information as to either the disallowance of the Act of 1903 or as to the re-intro duction of a similar Bill, and I am not prepared to pledge myself in advance as to the course I might think it desirable to take in such circumstances. There has been no recent correspondence on the subject, but there is no objection to laying such Papers as there are, if the House desires it.