[Editor: This article, regarding opposition to the racial clause of the Post and Telegraph Act 1901, was published in The Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA), 19 June 1903. The Post and Telegraph Act played a minor role in the White Australia Policy.]
English mail contracts
The white labour question.
Condemned by the commercial parliament.
One of the most important subjects dealt with by the Council of Chambers of Commerce of the Commonwealth was the question of the renewal of the English mail contracts. Mr. W. Herbert Phillipps introduced the debate by moving — “That the restriction in subsection 1 of clause 16 of the Post and Telegraph Act, 1901, limiting the carriage of mails to conveyances on which only white labour shall be employed must prove not only a serious menace to the commerce of the Commonwealth, because it imperils the securing of satisfactory contracts for the conveyance of oversea mails, but is a violation of the existing obligations of the British Government to a large section of its subjects, and should, therefore, be repealed.”
The position was that under clause 16, sub-section 1, of the Post and Telegraph Act of 1901, it would be possible on the renewal of the mail contracts to conclude any arrangement with any company employing other than white labour.
In looking over the replies that had been made by the Postmaster-General on the question in the Federal Parliament, and the other statements made by the Government respecting it, it seemed to him that they had a most complete illustration of the lack of commercial knowledge on the part of the statesmen controlling the destinies of the Commonwealth. In Canada and other countries large sums of money were being expended to secure the most perfect facilities for the conveyance of mails from port to port at the shortest possible notice.
They saw on the previous day an effort by Rp. Fowler to secure approval to the construction of a railway to Western Australia, and one of the great pleas was that, in the interests of commerce, it would provide facilities for rapid and certain transport. South Australians were advocating the building of a line across the continent in order to obtain quicker communication with the mother country.
Source:
The Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA), 19 June 1903, p. 1 (1 o’clock edition)
Editor’s notes:
Commonwealth = the Commonwealth of Australia; the Australian nation, federated on 1 January 1901
Federal Parliament = the national parliament of Australia (i.e. the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia)
Rp. = an abbreviation of “Representative” (a Member of Parliament, in the House of Representatives)
[Editor: Changed “section 1, of teh Post” to “section 1, of the Post”, “than whitt labour” to “than white labour”, “Jostmaster-General” to “Postmaster-General”, “Ftderal Parliament” to “Federal Parliament”, “most perfct facilitis” to “most perfect facilities”, “Westtrn” to “Western” “the buliding” to “the building”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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