Mr. James Keir Hardie, M.P., Labour politician and socialist, arrived at Shanghai on Monday by the P. & O. S. Ceylon from Kobe and leaves on Tuesday morning by the P. & O. 8. Marmora for India vid Hongkong. Mr. Keir Hardie is making trip round the world with the view of studying the labour and social conditions and movements in various countries, particularly British Qolonies. As the Labour representative in the British House of Commons for Merthyr Tydvil, which constituency he has represented ince 1900; a8 Chairman of the Independent' Labour Party, of which he is the life and soul; and ox proprietor and editor of the Labour Leader," Mr. Hardie has been prominently before the British public for the last fifteen years.
'A representative of this paper was granted an interview yesterday afternoon by Mr. Hardie. "He is " man of strong fibre, mental as well as physical, and, although we have been told by Home authorities that in politics be is hopelessly impracticable, yet a man of his resolution and tenacity is bound to obtain much for the labouring men he represents. A self-taught man, he has 1 good grasp of labour conditions and politics in many countries and daring his present tour he should—he has certainly made a promising start—gain a fund of information invaluable to himself hin party. 5 In the course of his conversation yesterday Mr. Hardie displayed remarkable grasp of labour conditions in Canada, through which country he has recently travelled, and he was not slow to give " definite opinion on predominant problems.
Asked if he would give an outline of the condition of the labour movement in England to-day, Mr. Hardie pointed out that he had decided, on leaving Great Britain, tosay nothing about Home affairs and that during his tour he did not wish to hold meetings although in Cansda he found meetings arranged for him. "I want to get to the bottom of labour and social conditions and movements of all kinds at work in the countries I am going to visit," said Mr. Hardie.
"You mean movements affecting the welfare of the working classes "Not necessarily. Movements of any kind. I specially want to get to the bottom of that great movement in India—the present agitation which has led to men going to prison, the suppression of newspapers, and the usual lies being sent abroad. About the time I left Home, column after column appeared in the news papers about the condition of Tadia imy dangers, ete. at is just rhe ettece tT wat to Know why."
"And how long do you propose to give to the study of questions affecting the natives of India?"—" I propose to study the question in India and I shall remain there a month. I go from there to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
in Canada what did you find "With respect to abou, on conditions have said there, and I' may ot} here, that the condition of the working classes is steadily becoming worse. In the city of Toronto, which I take as typical, the cost of living daring the last ten years has gone up by forty-four per cent, that is so far as the four necessities of life, namely, food, clothing, fuel and rent, are concerned, while wages not increased by more than fifteen per cent for the same period. Then until quite recently any one going out to Canada could obtain without great difficalty " homestead, but now unless they go right outside the cities altogether, that is impossible. A lot that cost $3 to $5 an acre ten years ago now costs $1,000 to $1,500 an acre.
Hindoos and a low type of semi-Asiatic and semi-European, named Galicians, These latter are hounding the white man out of every kind of trade and employment. La British Columbia the whole of the tinned fish canning trade is in the hands of the ypanese, as is practically the lumber industry."
"In concise terms you would say that the reason for t cost of living tective tariff, and land speculation."
Turning to Home affairs Mr. Keir Hardie in reply to the interviewer id:—" Trade at Home is exceedingly good. The textile trade is booming. The coal and iron trades ae in " more flourishing condition than they since 1874, the year of the great oom while very few of the leading firms can take orders for machinery and promise to deliver under two years. All the predictions of the Chataberlainites have been falsified. Trade Unionism is stronger than ever it was and socialism is spreading with very great rapidity. I estimate that in big industrial centre seventy-five per cent of the young men, that is men under twenty-five years of percentage? "—""Tt seems an astounding statement to make, Dut it is true of the industrial centres."
Referring to the representation of Labourites and socialists in the House of Commons, our representative inquired as tothe noity of the members on the great Labour questions.—Mr. Hardie said House of Commons is a combination of the socialist and Trade Union movements and they now number thirty-two "You have heard of the return of Mr. Grayson, the Socialist candidate, at Come Valley 2"—Yes.
"He was not supported in his candidsture by the Labour Party, at least not officially?"—No, not officially, but out of the thirty-two members I have mentioned, twenty-three are socialists,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.