NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 201, 20 May 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Indian migration has been a thorny question at: several Imperial Conferences, and this year if is to come up with a demand for the unrestricted admission of Indians te the Dominions. Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are united in their determination not to permit the growth of mixed populations in their territories, with its attendant racial ami economic evils. To spare Indian susceptibilities the exclusion laws have been drawn up in various forms. It has been agreed that Indians as fellow citizens in the Empire are not to lie delxured from admission in so many words, but every obstacle is placed in the way of their entrance. An old device was the education test, under which ability to write in a European language is required. ’I hen at the last Imperia! Conference it was moved by the Indian representative and agreed that a reciprocal arrangement be entered into. Under this passports are granted to Indians wishing to proceed to any "Dominion, and passports are requir-

ed of citizens of a Dominion visiting India. It is agreed by both sides that tne intercourse shall be restricted to merchants, tourists, and .students. It was understood that this equality of treatment would bo satisfactory to- India. Under our Act of last year ail persons, eave’those of British race, wishing to settle in New Zealand must first apply for permission to do so, ami such permission. is only granted at the discretion of our Government. India is restive unuer these thinly disguised restrictions, and the best way out might bo to set aside, as has been more Hum once proposed, say. East Africa as a special field for development by Indian enterprise. Without an attractive outlet for the energies of its surplus population, India has real grounds for discontent.

The preparation of a development plan for the Wellington metropolitan area is an undertaking that ought to receive early attention from the newly-elected City Council, acting in co-operation with local bodies controlling areas which are bound sooner or later to link up with the city. What is needed iff not, of course, the elaboration of fancy schemes which may or may not be carried out ten or twenty years hence. In the first instance, there should be a methodical survey of the present metropolitan area and its prospective additions, which will moke it possible to control such matters as the extension of business, industrial, and residential areas, the lay-out of streets and transport routes, and the selection of public and educational reserves. This work should be undertaken always with an eye to the future as well as the present needs of a city which la destined to grow rapidly, and is likely within a • comparatively limited period to double its present population. There is no need to plan in detail too far ahead, but it is essential that such boldly comprehensive plans should bo framed as will remove the danger of work being done which will have to be undone or done over again 'by the next generation, or even by the present generation, after same years have passed. The present check to civic expenditure if anything strengthens the case for an immediate beginning on the preparation of a development plan. Apart from the ultimate benefits of remedying and preventing congestion and other evils of haphazard growth, the orderly methods recommended will from the outset afford an additional guarantee that money as it becomes available will be spent to the best advantage. On merely utilitarian grounds there is an absolute case for the preparation of a development plan, but it greatly strengthens this case that if the metropolitan area is developed as it ought to be, Wellington undoubtedly will become one of the most 'beautiful cities in the world. Our new Mayor (Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P.) cannot better signalise his election, than by determining that the preparation of a development plan shall be put in hand without de,ay ' <

It is interesting to learn that the Bolsheviks are not having it all their own way ,in Turkestan. Tashkent, in Turkestan, is the base from which they are carrying on their propaganda. to undermine British rule in India. Bolshevism has no use for Christianity, and, it seems, none for Mohammedanism. Having outraged the religious sentiments of the Moslems of this portion of Asiatic Russia, the Bolshevist Commissars are. finding a hornets’ neat about their ears, and are now concerned to prevent the proclamation of a holy war against themselves. When the British Government in March, signed the trade agreement with Russia Sir Robert Horne also handed to M. Krassin notice that the intrigues against British rule in India must cease. In a lengthy official letter he referred at length to the activities of Russian agents, whom ho named, and took the strongest exception to the development at Tashkent of a. base for Indian work. It is pointed out that the British! Government 'is aware that a, political department has been set up there, together with a military technical centre, and that Indians arriving in Turkestan from whatever direction are given courses in revolutionary tactics. Furthermore, it is known that the plan is to remove the base to Kabul, in Afghanistan, where already Bolshevist Consuls have been appointed to posts along the Indian frontier, whore Russia has no commercial or other interest. Sir Robert Borne pointed out that it was of course, an understood condition of the trade agreement that the whole of this activity shbuld cease forthwith. Whatever Indian agitators are seeking Tt is not enslavement by Rus-' sia, and the Moslem rising in Turkestan is not much of an advertisement for the Asiatic propaganda centre of the Bolsheviks.