§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLTo ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Governor of Cape Colony, in reserving his assent to the Chinese Exclusion Bill, passed by both Houses of the Cape Parliament for the consideration of the Crown, while that assent was given to all the other measures passed by the Cape Parliament during its session, acted on his own initiative or at the suggestion of Lord Milner or the Colonial Office; and when will the temporary bar to the Chinese Exclusion Bill becoming law in Cape Colony be removed.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The Governor reserved his assent to the Bill because, as he intimates, it appeared to him to be one of a class his assent to 1372 which he is bound to withhold by the-Royal Instructions issued to Governors of the Colony. The Bill as passed has not yet been submitted to me by the Governor, and I am not, therefore, as yet in a position to advise His Majesty upon it.