RACE PROBLEMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 42, 18 August 1908, Page 7

RACE PROBLEMS.

ASIATICS IN JOHANNESBURG.

OEKTIFICATES BURNT. GAOL PREFERABLE TO -SERFDOM. I By TeUcraph.— Frea Association.— Copjiifh*. (Received August 18, 9.40 a.m.) JOHANNESBURG, 17th August. A meeting of 3000 Asiatics at Johannesburg burnt 400 certificates granted to Indians and Chinese. Mr. Gandhi, the Indian barrister, declared that he preferred a lifetime in. gaol to seeing British Indians treated as eerfs. PATIENCE, SYMPATHY, AND FORBEARANCE. WHAT THE TIMES URGES. WILL AUSTRALIA BE BACKWARD'/ (Received August 18, 8.40 a.m.) LONDON, 17th August. Commenting on the difficulty of. dealing with race problems, The Times urges patience, sympathy, and forbearance between tho autonomous colonies. Tho paper bolieves that Australia will not be backward in following Canada's splendid example, which ought to leconcileImperial and local interests. T,he new Bill introduced in tho Transvaal Parlisjnent has been met with strong pu.te&ts from Indians on the / Rand, who look upon it as a breach of the compromise in January, under which the Colonial Secretary accepted an assurance by leaders oi the Asiatics that they would make voluntary registration effective on condition that sentences on Indians then in prison would be remitted, that the finger-print ttst would be dispensed with in the case of educated Asiatics, property owners, and those whose identity it would be-oasy to establish, and that no information, the giving of which might offend religious susceptibilities, would be asked for. The new Bill proposes to restrict trading licenses to Asiatics who Voluntarily registered before 10th May, or who obtained certificates of registration under the Asiatic Registration Act of 1907. Mr. Gandhi is the recognised leader of the Asiatics in the Transvaal. He has taken upon himeeli tho responsibility of advising the fighting of the anti-Asiatio laws, and although he was arrested in consecjuence of that advice, he says 'ha has still no hesitation "in doing what is right, proper, and just." In one of his speeches, he said that it was perfectly true that in spite of the position British Indians still, somehow or other, clung j to the British subject idea, and- they felt that some day or other they would bes I able to make good the plea. So far as that was concerned the Chinese fight was different to the British Indian fight, but so far as the incidence of this wretched legislation was concerned, the Chinese fight was identical with that of the British InSTaay, and it was because the law pressed equally heavily on both ihat both were fighting it. The struggle was a. moral and reiigroua ono Canada has endoa-voured to do its best i to minimise the probability of difficulty between Britain and Asiatic countries i concerning the Dominion's dealings with aliens. In January, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, during a speech in the Canadian House jof Commons, declared that he knew Japan did not include in tho AngloJapanese treaty of 1894 a clause restricting immigration. "We are," said the Premier, "in a better position without such provision than is the United States with it, because we rely on Japan's good faith." Referring to tho value of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Premier remarked that in the event •of war they might see the fleets of Japan and Britain united in the North Pacific against a common enemy. They might see- Japan's fleet weighing anchor at Vancouver for the protection of British interests. The Alien Restriction Bill passed by Canada provides for the admission only of immigrants direct from the land of their birth, and immigrants from British Indftv must possess at least £40. Under tho Chinese Immigration Bill Chinese students are permitted to continue their education in Canada on payment of a poll tax of 300 dollars, which is' refunded" on the completion of one year's study.