HINDOOS IN VANCOUVER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 2032, 20 December 1907, Page 6

HINDOOS IN VANCOUVER.

The origin of the influx of Punjabis into British Columbia, says a correspondent of the London Times, was that men in the ; Hong-kong police who are Punjabis were sent from Hong-kong to attend the Coronation ceremonies in London; they came through Vancouver, and as representatives of a portion of the Empire were treated well and entertained by the city of Vancouver. When their term of service expired iu the Hong-kong Police, some of them, having such pleasant recollections of their treatment by the Vancouver people, and believing _ that they could earn a good livelihood there, decided to go and work. A few came, did good work, and found employment at wages that they never iu their wildest dreams thought they would get. The mills employed thme; they wrote to their friends in Punjab glowing accounts of what they could expect if they came to British Columbia; in two years a number had come and found plenty of employment without the slightest objection from the European labourer. In 1006 a number more came, and then the cry was raised by the working man of British Columbia that they would be' swamped by the influx of the Hindus, as they called them, and the hysteria set in that has now developed into an acute form. In the early part of last year these Sikhs who came with the idea that they, being British subjects, would be treated fairly, and be allowed ecpial opportunities with other British subjects, were treated by a certain section of the Vancouver people, chiefly political agitators, most disgracefully. The steamshijr company lauded them on their wharf, and the citizens of a British country would not allow them to come into the town; they were kept, with their thin clothing, in the cold ail night iu the open in the winter and treated iu the most barbarous mauuer. Many of these Sikhs had medals and decorations on them, rewards for fighting British battles. And so it has gone on since. The treatment they have received is inhuman, and the perpetrators, in their blind zeal to keep out all Orientals, have forgotten

that these Sikhs are British subjects: The Japanese have their- Government behind them, solemn treaties made that will be respected ; but what have these unfortunate Sikhs except the British Government to protect‘them? There is no doubt that British Columbia must be a white man’s country, but there is no excuse for the inhuman treatment of our fellow subjects to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for their support in India in the past."