INDIANS IN FIJI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2291, 18 June 1921, Page 1

INDIANS IN FIJI.

THE RECENT TROUBLE,

EXTRAVAGANT DEMANDS

MADE,

INFLUENCE OF GHANDI’S AGENTS.

Indian immigration into Fiji started, under the indenture system which ceased last year, some thirty odd years ago (writes a correspondent l'roxn Suva under date 23rd May). By the terms of the agreement under which the Indian labour came, the Indians and their children were entitled to repatriation to India after a ten years’ term, if they

so desired. In the years before the war, although there were many who were entitled to the privilege, very few families availed themselves of it —Fiji was good enough for the Then came the war, and, owing to lack of transport, the repatriation scheme temporarily.ceased. By the time ships were again available, Ghandi’s emissaries had come from India and persuaded the labourers that they would be much better off in their homeland. This

propaganda caused the number of .repatriates to rise from live to six hundred a year in the pre-war days to 1,800 in 1920. The number this year will be probably greater, and will mean a proportionately greater decrease in the labour available. COMING OF THE SADIIU.

About August of last year an Indian, who called himself a sadhu, or priest, and whose name was Bnshsitsh Muni, arrived in Fiji after having spent several months in Australia, where he studied labour conditions and strike methods. He was :i graduate of an English university, and a man of considerable educati-

on. Immediately on arrival, the sadhu settled in the sugar dstrict of Ba, on the opposite side of the island from Suva. Here he remained till March this year, and, as far as could be ascertained, until the strike commenced in February, his influmee, which was very great, was all

for good. On 13th February, 1921, it was reported in Suva that the labourers at Ba were ceasing work. The men were not leaving in a body, but small numbers had stopped work on almost all the estates. In a few days all the labour on that side of the island had walked out, but no demands had reached the employers, practically all the labour left the lilies, and (he majority of Indians went to live with friend- or relatives on the free lands. After several weeks, a huge meeting of Indians, at which the sadhu presided, was held, and demands were formula led for the provision of sumptuous houses, each labourer to be allowed five acres of ground, two cows, a bull, and a horse, 12s Gd per day,

full pay, and free medical attendance when sick, and numerous other benefits. This was the first occasion on which the sadhu showed his true colours, for it was quite clear from the preposterous demands that the sadhu did not wish the Indians ever to resume work, but to remain as a discontented element, and force the Government to repatriate the entire Indian community. Up to the beginning of 1921, the Indian Government, once an Indian lmd returned to India, would not allow him to go back again to Fiji. This was altered at the beginning of this year, and Indians who havo laboured in Fiji and been repatriated, are now allowed to return to Fiji, The “Gauges’’ brought back 500 of these people some days ago. * THE SADHU REPATRIATED. By the end of February almost) all the sugar estates, with the exception of Nausori, had ceased

work. About 18th March, the Government decided to deport the SadJui, who was then on his way to Nausori to stop the work there. TJiis was done by shipping him oil by the Atua the hollowing Saturdays Up to this point the only attempt at settlement had been when the strikers had presented, some weeks after they had come out on strike,

their preposterous demands to the employers; or, more correctly, to the principal employers, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company. This deputaton was sent away with the information that the company would not discuss the situation till the labourers had returned to work. Soon after this a Commission was appointed by tlje Government to inquire into the situation, but this proved abortive, for the Indians refused to give evidence.

MAY REMAIN IN FIJI.

The position now is this: The employers refuse to discuss the situation till the labourers return to work. The labourers think they are insufficiently paid, and say-they will not return until they receive a living wage. They have gone to live on, the free lands, and, as some 50 per A eent, have taken up cultivation for

themselves, it is doubtful what percentage will return to work when the present trouble is settled. Repatriation to India was setting in on a large scale, but, owing to the arrival of the Ganges and the repatriated Indians spreading the true story of the position in India, and also the information being spread amongst those desiring to return to India that their relatives who preceded them home are in a starving condition, and overcrowding the depots waiting an opportunity to return to Fiji, a rapidly-growing realisation that their leader, the Sadhu; who had no stake in the country, was leading them on solely for hi* own ends, it is probable that the rush will cease as suddenly as it commenced.