ASIATICS IN THE TRANSVAAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 45, 21 August 1908, Page 5

ASIATICS IN THE TRANSVAAL.

By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright. PRETORIA, 20th August. The leaders ot the Asiatics resident in the Transvaal have had an interview with General Botha, Premier, and Mr. J. C. Smuts, Colonial Secretary, on the subject of registration legislation. As a result of the meeting the Voluntary 'Registration Validation Bill is to be -withdrawn, and the whole question re-. /ferred to a Select Committee of the. ;House of Assembly. [A meeting of 3000 Asiatics at Johannesburg recently burnt 400 certificates granted to Indians and Chinese. The new Bill has met with strong protest -from Indians on the Rand, who look "upon it as a breach of the compromise in January, under which the Colonial Secretary accepted an assuranco by leaders of the Asiatics that they would »make voluntary registration effective on -certain conditions, one of which, they isay, was that tho Asiatic Registration Act should be repealed. The new Bill proposes to restrict trading licenses to Asiatics who voluntarily registered be* ifore 10th May, or who obtained certificates of registration under the Asiatic .Registration Act of 1907.]