21 MARCH 1903, Page 2

In the House of Commons on Thursday Mr. Chamberlain, who

met with a most cordial welcome when he returned to England on Saturday last, and who yesterday received an address at the Guildhall, made two speeches of great importance, which were in effect, though not in form, a report to the House on his South African tour. Two facts mentioned of great significance are that the money actually expended or to be expended on compensation will amount to £15,000,000, and that the work of repatria- tion is going forward so well and so rapidly that already some hundred thousand people have been replaced on the land. As to the question of self-government, Mr. Chamber. lain's statement was, in our view, most sound. He was not in a burry to see the Crown Colony system abandoned and self. government adopted, but if the people of either Colony, Boer or Briton, by a large majority desired self-government, even though it might seem premature, it would be unwise to refuse it. " The ground on which I should desire a little delay is really the interest of the two Colonies themselves, and not any Imperial interest." We. most heartily concur. Crown Colony government is not a tyranny in any sense, and while the Colonies are still in an unsettled state it is eminently suitable to them.