INDIANS ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 144, 15 December 1922, Page 8

INDIANS ABROAD

TREATMENT BY DOMINIONS

"THE FRANCHISE IS THE TEST."

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COHMGIT.)

(AMTRALIAB - NIW ZEALAND CAILI AISOCIATIiK.) (Received 15th December, 2.30 p.m.) DELHI, 14th December.

Mr. Sastri, in his first public statement regarding his tour of the Dominions, described the conditions and difficulties under which Indians lived and Worked. ' There were 2000, > he said, ■in • Australia, 600 in New Zealand, ■ 1100 in Canada. They

were labourers, petty tradesmen, and small farmers, and were better'off than men of the same class in.lndia. There was, however, a great deal of prejudice against them as belonging to an inferior race.

Much misoonception prevailed regardr ing India's backwardness and unfitness for modern political institutions, but it was the fear of lowering wages and the standard of living which was largely responsible for the Dominions'■ policy of exclusion. A suspicion was felt that behind his mission was a desire to break through the "White Australia" policy, and to create an opening for the entry of more Indians. Other objections were that to accede to the demands would give the Indians a position they did not enjoy in their own country, that it was •extremely risky to enfranchise Indians, while denying the franchise to Japanese and Chinese, that the giving to Indians .of political equality in other Dominions would seriously embarrass 1 th* white population of South Africa, and that .these concessions would be used to press the Government of India to quicken the giving of political power to Indians at home. His answer was that the resident Indians, having left their country, were entitled to the benefit of the Dominions' standards.

. Mr. Sastri emphasised the fact that the ■ franchise was the crucial question, and the refusal was embittering intelligent India. This question was regarded as the supreme test of the Imperial declaration that Indians had an equal' partnership in the British commonwealth. He, believed* his labours had not been- in vain, for he had succeeded in enlisting much sympathy, and somewhat dispelling the low opinion of" Indians held by the Dominions..