INDIAN OPINION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3109, 13 June 1917, Page 6

INDIAN OPINION

ON IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

A NEW VIEWPOINT

A brief address was delivered at the New Zealand Club luncheon yesterday ou eertuin phases of public opinion in ludia by Sir Henry liichards, Chief Justice of tlie United Provinces of Agra and Oudli, who is spending a holiday in this counAmong the utlicr guests were- the Acting-Prime Minister (Sir James Allen) and the Minister of Justice (the ilon. .). A. lfanan). The president of tho club iMr. C. K. AVheeler) was in tho chair. Sir Jleury Hicliards said that the president had propounded two questions upon which niembera of the club might' bo glad to hear a few words from him. Onu question was the Indian view of Imperial federation, and tho other was Indian immigration. Sir Henry chose to speak on the second question first. He said that he did not intend to discuss whether or not the exclusion, of Indians New Zealand was fundamentally sound or not. It would perhaps be presumptuous on his part to do any such thing with, his email knowledge of affairs in. Australia and in this country. Hβ could quite sympathise with and could quite understand the proposition tliat a great influx of Indian coolie labour would be undesirable in any port of these Dominions. It would be especially undesirable in. those Dominions where it was posaible\ for white men to labour with their hands and to prosper. But he would suggest that the exclusion of Indians generally, and particularly of educated Indians, stood on a very different footing. Also he wns not sure that the apprehension of flic people of Australia and New Zealand as to the danger of being overwhelmed by an influx of people from India was not greatly exaggerated. He himself doubted very much, whether it would be possible to get Indian labour here unle?s it was particularly desired by the Government of the Dominion and by tho Government of India. He was advised that it would require regular machinory to bring labourers from India lo these Dominions. Hβ would, however, for tho purposes of what ho had to say, assume that there was eome necessity for regulations for the restriction of the immigration of Indians, but ho would ask his hearers to consider whothor these regulations, if necessary they were, should not bo made as little hurtful to tho feelings of India as possible, and also whether the restrictions should be only such, as were reasonably necessary to give relief from reasonable apprehension. To give some idea of tho keenness of the reseutmont of educated Indians ngainst tho restrictions on the immigration of their countrymen to Dominions of the Empire, Sir Henry Kichards told a story about tho storm of indignation caused by tho publication of a. letter by Mr. Lionel Curtis. Mr. Curtis was one of a group of people wlio thought that the constitution of tho Empire should be altered to provide for an Imperial Parliament, containing representatives of the Dominions, to deal with all Imperial affairs, leaving tho' British Parliament to deal witli the domestic affairs of the Home countries. In, his scheme origiually, it was not intended that _ India should have any representation in tho now Imperial Parliament which was to be created. But Mr. Lionel Curtis went to India to learn somothing at first hand about the people, and he saw enough m the short while, allowed for his visit to make him wish lo seo more, and he wrote a. letter to members of the Round Table groups throughout the Empire, setting out hifi ideas, and suggesting that it would bs wife for him to stay longer than he had intended. He had some 500 copies of this letter printed, but by some mischance one copy fell into the hands of an Indian paper, and a garbled version of it was pnblished. Mr. Lionel Curtis at once published the full text of tho letter. In it ho pointed out that it was not proper to treat India like Ceutral Africa, for the reason ihat there were many people in the country who wore capable of forming valuable opinions, and that it seemed to him that if these sections of people were united they might be a real fc-Tce for the good of their own country and the Empire. Hβ was, in his letter, not definite as to what ought to bo the Bound Table policy on the point, but he pointed out very clearly what was the exact effeut of' going ahead with an Empire Federation ignoring the people of India whom he had in. mind. The publication, of thi3 letter raised a perfect storm of protest and indignation. "I was at some pains to find out what was the offence in the letter do cause such an agitation," aaid Sir Henry. "Would you believe that the whole cause of the agitation was the suggestion that there should be any Imperial constitution in which the colonies were to be given any 6ay in Indian affairs? I invited some of ray Indian friends to meet me, and I put some questions to thorn, and asked them what was jeally so offensive in it. All of them said to me: 'The very notion of allowing the Dominions to have one word to say in our affairs is unthinkable. They are the people who refuse to allow Indians to land in their countries.' Of course 'they do not appreciate 'or understand your reasons for it, but undoubtedly there is a most intense' feeling on the snbjeet in India." And, continued Sir Henry, it was a fact that the people who resented the restrictions were people who had not the remotest intention of ever coming to these countries, or, indeed, of leaving India at all. The resentment did not come from those who wanted to come, but could not come, bnt from people who considered any such restriction an insult. He mentioned these matters in order to show if possible that in case the regulations should at any time be amended, it might be desirable to make them less hurtful. In any case, he did not think they should extend to the exclusion of educated Indians.

Hft did not think the question nf Tmperlal Federation was- very much considered by the educated neople of India before the publication of the offendin" letter of Mr. Lionel Curtis. A great stir wns caused T,y the publication nf the letter, so that the mishap was perhaps a blessing in disguise. At any rate the question of Imperial Federation was beinj; discussed for the first time by Hip educated people of India.