INDIAN TRADERS IN THE TRANSVAAL

Evening Star, Issue 12258, 27 July 1904, Page 6

INDIAN TRADERS IN THE TRANSVAAL

THE COLOR LINE. The jiidginitit piunouno d by Mr Justice Solomon, in conjunction with iheCJhief Justice, in tire cate of an Indian trader v. the Government fill as a llmnrlerhoU anions the white shopkeepeis of Pretoria. The case in a nutshell is (says a correspondent of the 'Globe') as follows:—The Indian, who is a British subject, and Ion;* re.s dent in the Transvaal, applied last January for two trading licenses—one for a shop of his at Pietersbuvg, the other (or a place of business in Pretoria.. The first was refused him, and for the second the Receiver of Revenue tendered him a provisional quarterly license, which he refused, and brought tie; present action against the Transvaal Government. Tk '\e:eneo of the Government was that ctv.am stiwts and localities were alloite,d for Indian traders, and that outs de of these, they could not ciirry on a business, and also that the late High Caurt, in a similar trial, uphold this claim. The Judge, however, quashed both thise plen.s, giving it as his opinion that the law allotting certain s;liefts to Indians could only be interpreted as induing these for places of residence, and therefore this would not prevent an Asliitic from opening a shop in any quarter of the town he desired to; .-ind'that (hi decision of the late High Court, though it should be ;expected, was not binding on the present Court. That the shopkeepers of Pretoria and other towns of the 'Transvaal fcrc generally perturbed by_ this decision cannot be wondered at. The competition among shop, k.opcts is a.lready very keen, and this, with the extoit'onnto rents, makes the profits grow less and less. But with the additional competition of the Asiatic trader, who i>- content with the smallest of profits' the lot of the European trader becomes a by no means happy one. This question of Asiatics being allowed equal lights with the whites in the matter of trading was a bone of contention between the late Boer Government and Great Britain. The British Government, "of course, took the side cf their Indian British subjects, and this caused much bickering and ill-fooling, and was one of the steps "which led to the late way. The whites to a man arc dead against the Indians and A nib traders being allowed To open shops where they will, as they look upon it as lowering to their dignity, cruel to their fellow-townsmen, the■.storekeepers, and the thin edge of colored dominance.