The Indians in Natal.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 67, 19 November 1913, Page 5

The Indians in Natal.

SERIOUS COLOR PROBLEM.

“A CRAVE EXAGGERATION.”

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] .illto —SYDNEY fell.N SPECIAL CABLES.

Capetown, November 17

The authorities describe the altercation as a grave exaggeration. No orders were issued to suppress the strike. The sugar cane season is at its aeight, and with the nulls'idle the crop is in jeopardy.

MAINTAINING ORDER,

Durban, November 18

The Cape Times and Natal Mercury have throughout supported the demand for a repeal of the 60s poll-tax. It is jfficially denied that the Government has issued orders to suppress the strike. The men who were sentenced ■vere chiefly among tiie 2000 arrested, who will work out their sentences in she compounds oi their own mines, ts the gaol accommodation is insuffilent. Flogging will not be allowed, tnd no arrests will bo allowed unless acts ot violence are committed. No shooting is authorised unless absolutely necessary for maintaining order. A meeting of 4000 Indians at Bur-' >an resolved to cable to the Indian md Imperial Governments, pointing >ut that there is no organisation to eed them if the Government do not .itervene, and that many lives will JO lost. “A REIGN OF TERROR.” (Received 9.46 a.m.) Durban, November 18. There is a reign of terror on the mrth coast of Natal, the planters earing that if the strikers obtain the ipper hand, the sugar cane fields and mgar mills worth hundreds of thousinds of pounds are likely to he wiped )ut. In one case 150 acres of cane vere burnt, the Indians standing by dieering. The sugar settlements resemble nilitary encampments. The coolies ire increasingly pugnacious, and, arm'd with cane-cutting knives and clubs, efuse the masters* advance, remaning- sullen and implacable. STRIKE SUPPRESSION. Calcutta, Novein her 17. Gokhale, leader of the Indian Naionalists at Bombay, Inis received a elegram from Natal stating that in order to suppress the strike the Go•ernment'has directed'(he urine oomjounds to ho treated as’ gabls.. Men •efusiug to work are being Hogged and hreateued with starvation.

•Indian papers, accepting the truth if the statement, are opening snbscripion lists in aid of the resisters.