The Dominion. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1913. THE INDIAN TROUBLES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1944, 30 December 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1913. THE INDIAN TROUBLES IN SOUTH AFRICA.

An able statement of the case for the indentured Indians who arc now on strike in Natal is contained in an article published by the Manchester Guardian on November 21. Tho situation has not changed in any essential particular since the article was penned. Fronv its inception tho strike has.partaken largely of the character of passive- resistance. At the moment the Indians arc pressing a demand for representation upon a Royal Commission of Inquiry —a demand to which the Union Government has so far declined to accede. The Guardian takes it for granted that the strike can be easily put down, since the Indians arc uot fighters, but it adds that the rights and wrongs of the matter cannot be evaded without the gravest risk o'f injury to tho Empire. The repression of the strike, it goes on to remark, is taking forms that are intolerably harsn. Only a very small proportion of, the strikers have been guilty of crime: the great majority have been as orderly and far more submissive than English strikers would bo. But strikers whoso only offence is passive resistance to. the wrongs of their race havo heen arrested wholesale and thrown into prison. It is admitted that there may be provisions in the articles of indenture which prescribe imprisonment as the punishment for breach of its terms, but it is stated that Indians who arc not under indentures are being imprisoned. Moreover, there is evidence that Indians on striko are being brutally flogged by their employers, and* generally, so it is asserted, arc being treated more like runaway slaves than equal subjects of the King. Taking this view of tho situation, in Nat&l the Guardian contends that the first duty of the Imperial Government is to watch over' . the measures of repression, and see that* they are not illegal and unnecessarily harsh: its next duty to insist that tho grievances of the'lndians shall be considered, and promises made to them kept. The strikers desire satisfaction of two demands only. The first is that a tax of £3 a head imposed oil Indians whose indentures have expired should be repealed. Tho tax is designed to force the Indians in Natal either to return to India or to enter into indentures once more. It is contended that it. is a measure of forced labour, and as such grossly unconstitutional and illegal. The second demand is that there should be reasonable freedom of migration from one province of the South African Union to another' for Indians and their families. At present, on the score that, as Mahatnedans may marry more than one wife, any Moslem marriage is polygamous, a Moslem Indian is not permitted to take even his ftrst and only wife from one province of South Africa to another. Both these demands, .the Manchester Guardian urges, should be supported, with the whole weight of the Imperial Govemzncuw ; . .

. Tfac Indians, it seems, ; do.not«claimi the right of free immigvatiqiiiV'into. South Africa, They •* are£. content that; further immigrantsc'-of-- their; race.' should Vic excluded,that the vote should he withheld ■ from" th'OTs: who have, already entered..'the ,cruintry,;s£jAll that they, ask-' is: "Alio!*; {lisi'ta be an inferior class of vote, but do not tax us.mitrjplfthe.-country oritfto indent.ureii.ii! v.'hiclr '.ve ,arc not quite slaves nor y«i, frco meis.'" ...The treatment of the. Indi/uis, ,iit.vis,.rirgiic-d, is qusstion, not o! domestic,-.but .of Imperil : puhey

It -s a great concession' l to't-iw-status of a Vclt-governing colony that v -we.' should'Otalulon tiic tight to ask" for equal rights, fee a|l British subjects. : These Indiansaro not Knflirs, but iwn who, in a few generations are capable of "- .full cifenship'. But though tho grant■' of self-government-may carry with it tho right to prohibit future immigration, it cannot cancel obligations already incurred. In assuming tho .priviieGM-s of .self-government, tho Dominions also take over .its.responsibilities, and these include not only local poliiM and.defence,'but all the.lmporinl duties to subjects o» the Crtnvn within tilth 1 jurisdiction. If a:historian in tins future came to write the decline and fall of the British Empire, we can imagine a chapter in which lie sow the, beginning of the end (in the neglect by the Dominions of their responsibilities to tho races ftf the Empire, which, though less developed politically were still the heirs ■ to a proud and noble civilisation. .

People in the oversea Dominions may not be able to see eye. to eye in every particular with this outspoken champion of the Indians of Natal, but every just, and reasonable person will agree that tho Indians are entitled to a full and fair hearing of their grievances, and if it is true that passive resistance on their part has led to retaliation in tho shape of brutal violence they should find champions even in convinced exponents of the White Australasia policy'and its equivalent in other parts of »the Empire. The racecolmlr problem presents enormous difficulties to-day, and will present greater ones in tile' future, bnt itshould be possible in dealing with its various aspects to avoid fanning race-hatred to a- white heat as appears to have been done in Natal. This is apart from the actual merits of the Quarrel which can only be disclosed by a full and free inquiry, such as will no doubt be shortly held into all its circumstances,'.- -V