COLOUR QUESTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 8 April 1925, Page 11

COLOUR QUESTION.

INDIANS AND JAPS,

POSITION IN" CANADA.

Sorce telling comparisons between the treatment meted out to Indians as corr.nared to that accorded the Japanese in Canada are made by an Angv'o-lndian correspondent.

The writer declares that in Canada the Indians are actually placed in aposition inferior to that of the Japanese. That, no doubt, will come as a shock to most Britishers, but it is true. The Japs number about 17,000 in Canada, and of that number about ToOO are naturalised. Except in British Columbia this naturalisation has been full, as to political as well as civil rights. In British Columbia there are no political rights, even though the Japs have been naturalised. The reason for the Japs being favoured is that they are an important clement in the economic wellbeing of the State, as they are the chief fishermen and have helped to build-up a big industry. In short they have made their way into the community and are important for the same reason that labour is important anywhere— just as Indian labour has been important in Fiji and elsewhere.

The Indians are in theory British subjects, continues the correspondent. They are supposed to have the. same rightsi as other subjects, whether in India or elsewhere. That is the simple legal position. But in Canada the King's laws do not seem to run.

Indians are not only excluded, just as if they were rank foreigners to the Empire, but they are absolutely refused the rights of citizenship of any character in such few cases as have gained admission. In short they are worse off than the Japanese- In 1910 a scheme was mooted to deport all Indians to Honduras. Nothing came of it, but it shows the temper of Canada. No one has ever proposed to deport the Japanese to Honduras. What is India to conclude? Apparently she is made to take v a place inferior to that given the Japanese.