TRANSVAAL INDIANS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 336, 24 October 1908, Page 5

TRANSVAAL INDIANS.

A PUNJAB PROTEST. . BIC MEETING OF MOHAMMEDANS. " PERSECUTION." (BY TELEGRAPH—PBESS ASSOCIATION - —-COPYRIGHT.) (Rec. October 23, 9.50 p.m.) Calcutta, October 23. A meeting of a society representing five million Punjab Mussulmans, held in Lahore, denounced the continuous persecution of British Indians in the Transvaal, deplored tho inertness of the British Government, and besought the Indian Government to take action. "THE REAL ISSUE." According to the Johannesburg correspondent of "Tho Times," in the Asiatic immigration question, the principal difficulty is tho demand by tho Indian Association that the Government shall concede the principle of admitting Indians subject to education tests applying to Enropean immigrants. The correspondent adds' that tho issue thus raised between the Asiatics and the Transvaal Government has boen the real issue throughout the whole .controversy—that is, the claim of Asiatics to enter and reside subject to no discrimination in comparison 'with Europeans. "Their objection to'finger prints was only the ostensible ground of the controversy last year, as is proved by the fact that practically all Asiatics . freely gave their finger prints immediately nffpr tho leaders announced that this was permissible." The correspondent adds that the Transvaal Government, in tho January compromise, did not promise to concede tho principle now claimed, and will not do so. Tho Bill amending tho Asiatic Eegistration Bill meets all the objections originally raised by the Indian Association.