STATUS OF INDIANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1922, Page 5

STATUS OF INDIANS.

RIGHTS IN DOMINIONS. MR. SASTRI’S REPORT. A DIFFICULT PROBLEM, By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Received Dec. 15, ,5.5 p.m. Delhi, Dec. 14. Mr. Sastri, in his first public stateifi.ejii, regarding his tour of the Dominions, described the conditions and difficulties under which Indians lived and worked. There were 2000 in Australia, 600 in New Zealand, and 1100 in Canada. Laborers, petty tradesmen, and small farmers were better off than men of the same class in India.

There was a great deal of prejudice against them as belonging to an inferior race, and much misconception prevails regarding India’s backwardness and unfitness for modern political institutions. The fear of lowering wages end the standard of living was largely responsible fur the Dominions’ policy of exclusion and suspicion. They felt that behind his mission was a desire to break through the White Australia policy and create an opening for the entry of more Indians. Other objections were that acceding to tlm demands would give Indians a position they did not enjoy in their own country, and that it would be extremely risky to enfranchise Indians, while denying Japanese and Chinese the franchise. Jt was also contended that giving Indians political equality in other Dominions would seriously embarrass the White population in South Africa. His avowal was that resident Indians, haying left their country, were entitled to the benefit of the Dominions’ Standards. Mr. Sastri emphasised that the franchise was the crucial question and the refusal was embittering intelligent India, which regarded it as a supreme test in the Imperial declaration that Indians had equal partnership in the British commonwealth. He believed his labors were not in vain, for he succeeded in enlisting much sympathy and somewhat dispelling the low opinion of Indians held by the Dominions. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Association.