20 THE CHANGES NEEDED 



must be a tradition from the old slave days, 

 when a slave became a free man the moment his 

 foot touched British soil. But that belongs to 

 the past. We should certainly, without an Act, 

 keep out of our country now men suffering from 

 any fearful disease ; and why ? Not from any 

 dislike to the foreigners as such, but because 

 we do not intend our own people to suffer 

 and die owing to the introduction of such dis- 

 ease : we cannot afford it. Nor can we, with 

 so many men standing idle, afford to have our 

 workmen under-sold at their trades and still 

 kept idle. 



There is also a sentimental feeling that Great 

 Britain must never be inhospitable. It is purely 

 sentiment, and in the circumstances unwise 

 sentiment. When a question arises between 

 employing our own fellow-citizens at their wages, 

 or foreign workmen at lower wages, it is the 

 positive duty of Government to take the steps 

 necessary to defend their own people ; and that 

 would hold good, even if foreign workmen did 

 no other harm but keep our own men idle ; but 

 they harm Great Britain in other ways, by 

 depleting her of capital, and by reducing the 

 demand for commodities. 



As has been said, really good workmen in 

 reasonable numbers no one would object to, on 

 certain terms. There are such workmen, now 

 in Great Britain, employed on work of more 

 than average utility, agricultural work, such as 

 the making of butter. If it were possible to 

 carry on such work remuneratively, and put food- 



