HINDUS AND CANADA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16569, 5 June 1914, Page 6

HINDUS AND CANADA.

The Canadian Government has been brought suddenly and dramatically to realise the difficulties involved in legislation against the admission of Asiatics. A vessel, it seems, was chartered to carry a largo contingent of Hindu emigrants to Canada. Tito officials at Vancouver probably received a warning from some quarter, and when tho vessel arrived they simply refused to allow tho Hindus to land. This, at any rate, is tho story, so far as it is revealed in tho meagre cable messages on the subject. Tho object of the attack on Canada is not far to seek. Tho Nationalists in India havo been encouraged by their success in compelling the Government of India to take up tho question of tho treatment of Hindus in South Africa, and they are planning now to involve other British dominions in tho controversy. The. choice of Canada is no doubt inspired by the fact that tho northern dominion offers an attractive field for Asiatics, but it is not at all unlikely that Australia and Now Zealand will also bo brought into the dispute in some way or other. Tho attitude of tho people on the Pacific Coast of Canada, however, is much more aggressive than tho Australasian attitude is, and although the arrival of a shipload of Hindus would prove very embarrassing to the authorities in New Zealand it could scarcely be urged that our immigration law is unduly harsh as immigration laws go. Hindus can be admitted to New Zealand if they can

comply with the requirements of the legislation. But the point of, importance that needs to bo emphasised is concerned with the conditions in India rather than with the conditions hero. Tho new movement in India is popular and it is undeniably formidable. The agitation in South Africa affected tho Hindus amazingly, and the reports in the Indian Press leave no room for doubt that the leaders can now count on tho active support of some millions of pcoplo who were previously quite uninfluenced by all mo organisations and conspiracies. The whole question of the admission of natives of India to British dominions is certain to bo brought under review in tho vory near future. Tho Government of India simply cannot refuse to move in the matter when’ it is subjected to pressure by an enormous mass of native opinion.