INDIANS AT FIJI

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 122, 17 February 1920, Page 8

INDIANS AT FIJI

Sir,—May I bo permitted to correct the somewhat erroneous impression created by the account about Indians in Fiji in your issuo of to-day? It is true that "importations lof Indians, under the indenture system, ccased somo years a«o," but only after a furious agitation in India, and ailer the greatest opposition from the planters. "Komo years ago" is only so late as l'Jlo, and uii.y slopp-M cuoiies leaving India, but was not the abolition of the system in Fiji. liven as late as last August public meetings were being held in India against the condition of things in Fiji, and the indenture system came to an end by legal enactment only a few months ago. 1 have not the actual date, but it is less than six months ago, and your files will show the telegram from Fiji announcing' the abolition. ! It was a part of the indenture system that, after the contract ceased the ■ coolie should be repatriated; this was not done, even after the new agreements ; : i-'iic-cn in tn by tlio Fijian Government with the Government of India. I The • reason given was that there wcro ;no ships to carry the coolies back, ! though there wore always shijis to carry I away cargoes of sugar. This is one reason -why "the Indian labourers had it in their power to .go back to India," but did not. It was this that started the agitation oncc ajjailu in India, last ■ August. v.i.v resentment in India is not against |!i" '.ilanti-rs. but against the system itself. Contractors travel about India explaining the comparatively high wages in Fiji, carefully concealing the high prices for food and clothing, and so deluding 'the coolies wilili dreams tof an earthly paradise. As a matter of fact, we know from statistics that a large number of coolies even when their term i» over, caunot go back tn India simply because they are heavily in debt. In many cafes women and boys have been decoyed into ooolio depots 'anil shipped out to Fiji. all \W it</ rP'TMIt tlic MTltimP to the Indian coolie shown in such phrascß as that in the telegram you publish today. Vint Ir-linus "re'iuired very little to support them." 'Indians have the 6amo size of stoniacli6 as white men, and the same cravings for well-being and happiness as other people. It is true that our coolie in India has oltcn scarcely even one full meal a day. and po lie "may bo better off physically in Fiji; but'to us in India the spirit of God is equally in the coolie as in lus employer, and wo resent the prevalent attitude of employers of coolie labour that he is somo kind of semi-human, semi-animal creature ivlio only n c ™s a meal and a mat to praise God bud 111s cmnlover for. bounties received. If the coolie is induced to leave his Indian environment to work to earn profits for European or Australian capital, the coolie will sooner or Jater demand the European scale of wages, as hv his leaving India lie is forced o live not according to the Indian scale of living but the. European, bo the time is not far distant when there will lx> no "coolie labour" at all,, certainly not from India^am^^g^