A FRIENDLY INDIA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 February 1925, Page 7

A FRIENDLY INDIA.

MORE IMPORTANT THAN NAVAL BASES. THE OUTLOOK IN FIJI. A friendly co-operating India is_ oi more importance to the British Empire. and especially to Australia and New Zealand, than a dozen Singapore Bases. India, with one-fifth of the human race and situated between and part of the Moslem world and the great yellow races, can exert an important influence upon the attitude of the Asiatic peoples towards the white races —important because based upon her own experience.

Such was the statement made at a Wellington Rotary Club, luncheon by Rev. A. W. M'Miilao, who chose as his subject. “The Indian Problem in I‘iji. “Closely related to his problem of immense ' political significance,” said Mr. M'Millan. ‘‘is the future outlook of the Indians in Fiji, who are the pioneers of an Asiatic nation in these southern seas. A loyal, co-operating ‘little India’ in the South Pacific can !>e of immense political and commercial importance to New Zealand, and tor this season amongst others, it is desirable that New Zealanders should natch cloely and sympathetically the development of these fellow-subjects of the King-Emperor. India is watching Fiji and other Crown Colonies where her sons have settled very critically. Forty years ago she knew and cared but little: it is different to-day with the extension of education and the experience of the Grea t\\ ar. She now takes an intelligent interest in the happenings in distant parts of the world, and the new Nationalist spirit has led her to no Longer permit shiploads of her sons and daughters to he transplanted to Crown Colonies to be exploited for cheap labour. Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, representing India at the Imperial Conferense, said, ‘I fight as a, subject of King George for a- place in his houselioldT and I will not be content with a place in his, stables. Where honour is at

stake we nrefer death to anythinp else. AVe attach far more importance to the honour of our nationals in other parts of the Empire than you probably realise. AA’e do not want our nation outside India to appear as a nation of coolies.’ NOT LOW CLASS COOLIES. “There is a common impression in some quarters that the Indians in Fiji are just so many low class coolies, hut such is not the case. Caste distinctions have been lift behind in India. Many who were of low caste are now prosperous farmers. That many were of high caste can he seen by their very carriage and demeanour. Thousands who were bom in Fiji are showing a marked self-respect and sense of dignity. Numbers of valiant and stalwart Sikhs and other Punjabis, some of whom are ex-service men "with a new lust for travel, have come to Fiji, and

■ire doing pioneer work, clearing the bush and growing bananas and pineapples. The era of the dumb coolie has gone, the era of the self-respecting planter and producer has come. In this way the whole Indian outlook in Fiji lias changed. During the past fortyfive years since the first introduction of indentured labour from India, the first generation of Indians passed through a dark experience. AVhen we look ten thousands of Indians to France as a labour corps during the wav they were wisely controlled by officers who, had had experience in India and Assam as engineers, planters. Civil servants, missionaries, and were conversant with Indian languages and customs. Not so in Fiji, and the harsh experience and undesirable housing accommodation produced crime, assults, and moral chaos. For instance, before the war commenced 13 per cent, of Indian labour was refractory. necessitating fines and imorisonment. Whereas the proportion of suicides in the. United Provinces of India, from which most of these people come, is 65 per million, under the iu-dentured-labour system . in proportion rose to 926 per miilion. With the abolition of indentured labour in Fiji in 1820. a new chapter opened. The Indians are all now independent agriculturalists. or are free to choose their method of living. A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK. “In regard to the health of the community. the outlook of the Indian in Fiji is* infinitely brighter than in India ; for not only have the medical authorities performed very creditable work in various ways, blit .there is an entire absence of such pestilences as cholera, plague, and malaria which cause the death of millions in India. If there is one outstanding need it is some effort such as that made by the PLunket Society in New Zealand be extended to the Indians in Fiji to reduce the high rate of infant mortality, which is largely due to the ignorance of very young mothers. Once the infants escape the dangers of their first year or two they develop into fine healthy children, and show remarkably improved physique as compared with disease-ridden India, where, for instance, in some parts of Calcutta 675 out of every thousand ehilren born die within the first year. The economic condition of the people is distinctly hopeful, as compared with the Indian villages! from which, they came. Their standard has risen, their spending capacity has increased, and there is*marked absence of subject poverty. Unlike India, famine is unknown in Fiji. Indeed, as one Indian put it; “AVe are harvesting something in every month of the year.” NEED FOR EDUCATION.

“It needs to be realised that the Indian is the main producer for export. For instance. 68 per cent .of the cane crushed by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company is purchased by the company from independent Indian growers, most of whom are not on the company's land, but on land leased direct from Fijians. So with bananas copra, cotton ,rice, etc. The Indian is in Fiji to stay, and his roots have struck deep. This very prosperity leads naturally to a desire for all-round development. In regard to the evolving of a right type of education for Indians, the Government has not vet adopted Itself to the changed conditions and outlook. Whereas there are to-dav 14,000 Indian hoys and girls between five and 15 years of age, and the Indians have been in the Colony for nearl.v half a century, there exists to-dav but one Government primary school with about 50 Indian boys in attendance. True, there are 1400 hoys and girls attending various mission schools, or schools which the Tndias have established. towards some of which the Government makes a small grant in aid. but in respect of which it has no system of supervision, inspection, or examination. Neither is there anyone in the Department of Education with the requisite knowledge of Hindustani!!. What is needed is a carefully-planned educaioual policy which will aim at character formation, and an intelligent know, ledee of agriculture. •‘The Rotarian ideal, service before self, if applied to the Indian problem in Fiji would brighten the outlook and make for the development of a race of neonle who will: he friendly co-operating neighbours, if the present opportunity ; s clf'arH realised and wisely handled h’- those in whose bauds th» destiny of these people are largely placed.’’