INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24800, 14 February 1946, Page 5

INDIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA

DECISION TO FIGHT BILLS ON ASIATICS

(Rec. 5.5 p.m.) CAPE TOWN, Feb. 12. Following a delegation to the South African Prime Minister (General Smuts) from the Indian Congress, the South African Indian Congress after an ali-night discussion passed a resolution to mobilise all resources and fight General Smuts’s Asiatic Bills and claim the right to a hearing at the United Nations Assembly and at the Security Council.

One resolution rejected General Smuts’ principle of segregation as repressive and as a sacrifice of Indians “to appease extreme white reactionaries” and proposed sending a deputation to India seeking a round table conference between the Indian and Union Governments, failing which India will be asked to withdraw its High Commissioner and apply economic sanctions.

Another resolution claimed the right to a hearing by the United Nations on the ground that the Union Government’s proposals were a breach of the premise of equal treatment given Indians when they were first introduced into South Africa, and a breach of the 1926 agreement between the Union and India.