WHOLESALE ARRESTS

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 474, 14 April 1920, Page 5

WHOLESALE ARRESTS

Meanwhile wholesale arrests had ' been made, wholesale prosecutions in- ' stituted. Two hundred persons (including some 25 women) were seized, and more than 130 of these had been sentenced at the time of our visit. About 115 had been sent to jail each with one month's hard lahor. Eight had been sentenced to one year; one to nine months; about 10 women had been awarded from three weeks to one month. An.attempt was made (by business houses) to cut off the food supplies of the families of certain of the men regarded as leaders. A proclamation was issued (February 5) ordering the strikers back to work, and forbidding any meeting of twenty persons or more without three hours' notice in writing to the police. Every Indian was required to have a permit to move about. Mrs. Manilal had refused to ask for a permit, and at the time of our visit could not leave her house without the certainty of being arrested! We met other Indians who were in the same position. CRUDE JOURNALISM That evening the Mokoia left for Lautoka, about half the party (including the Labor memhers) making the trip to the sugar mill there, while 4e other half remained at Suva. During our absence tho "Fiji Times" made bitter attacks on myself particularly, its articles and paragraphs apparently being designed to foment hostility towards the Labor members. Its articles of March 19 was a-clear indication that I had been shadowed. It may be mentioned here that the "Fiji Times" represents a very crude journalism, which reflects itself in methods not at all calculated to weigh with evenly-balanced minds. But there is no doubt whatever that its unlettered mischievousness has had much to do with widening the gan between the Indian workers and the white population in Fiji. AffOTHEB REQUEST On our arrival at Lautoka, Thursday, March 18, Mr. Sidey (who was in charge of the Party) called mo aside, and requested that during our stay at Lautoka I would not communicate with the Indians. We were to be the guests of the Colonial Sugar Refining Co., he reminded mc. I replied (as at Suva) that if I went ashore I should make my inquiries from every source; and that if the Company's general manager was pre- ' pared to tell mc I must not do this, I should remain on the boat. Mr. Sidey then brought the general manager to mc, and to him 1 repeated my determination. He said he most certainly would not forbid mc to make inquiries and accordingly I went ashore. During the afternoon of this day wo were taken l>y train to Nandi, where we met Miss Priest (to whom Mr. McCombs had letters of Introduction) and Mr. Minora (an Indian ixhool teacher)—each of thorn v.-as sympathetic with tho Indians, each thoroughly satlslicd thai, the j trouble was mainly economic, and J each honestly emphatic in insisting on | "constitutional methods." Mr. McComb remained hero overnight; and the fact of his staying created in certain minds an atmosphere that hovered between alarm and conjecture. During our train journey to Nandi, wo stopped at nno place to .take in water—and I was suddenly awakened j from deep reverie in a wide interest by hearing someone loudly demand "Is Harry Holland on board V" 'The inquirer was Paddy Bowes—a tiycl- . uey comrade of 20 years a gone: It was good to grip his hand and hear his greetings; "COMRADE!" THE COOLIE LINES On Friday, the 19th, we proceeded by train to Ba plantation. On my way to (ho train I was met by an j old-time Queenslander—Costcllo by name, and loyal to (ho core to Labor. Out from Ba, at an adjoining plantation we had a look at I he coolie"lines" —long, unlovely structures divided into cubicles 10 feet hy 7, iv each of which either a family or three single men will live. Tl?3ir only floor is a cement made by the Indians of a mixture of cow-dung and clay. These cubicles have been well described by Dr. Burton in his "Fiji, of To-day." The manager at Ba told mc that; tlie Company is making alterations in. the direction of lieliui: t ; mc Indiana U< build their own £jv.; ■; In it;-. | and live away from the "lines" Most certainly no well-to-do New Zeslander would think of stabling his lior,-;o in a C.S.R.Co. coolie cubicle; Tlm: manager here told us that the cooilef, on the plantation were being pa-'d IV3 a day. On the following 'day we had an opportunity of visiting an Indian baza hi , a I. I <a lit oka, and that afternoon were privileged to talk to a young Indian missionary. Here we were told that the ruling wage around Lautoka is.2/- per day, but that the Company has promised to increase the amount, to 2/6; thai arising out of the indenture system and the "moral" conditions it lias developed there is constant trouble between the Indians over women; and uirthc* , that the Indians arc still subjected to beating in connection with their employment. rmsosEßS roit a day Ijunday, 21st, we arrived back at Suva, where the trouble occurred with the firemen over the arrest of one. of their number, and the fixed determination of the others to stapd by their mate and see that his witnesses were available and that he had a fair trial. At the breakfast table—after the boat had pulled out from the wharf—Sir James Allen made a brief reference to the trouble, and intimated that "it had been decided" that it was not ad-\ visable that any one should go ashore. After breakfast, in company with Mr. MeCombs. I aaked Sir .lames Allen if hit! statement'amounted to an absolute prohibition, and ho replied in tho affirmative, and admitted that the decision was his own. Wo entered a vigorous protest, but without, avail. It was clear to us that we were to be given no further opportunity of gelling information from the Indians, nor yet were wo lo bo permitted to get into touch witj the Hrenien. Had there nol- been Jour Labor members on board tlio whole Parliamenta/y Party would noi. have been held prisoners on thu last Sunday of our trip. It was a great, tribute that was pakl to the, Labor members. But most certainly there were times when the close attention that was paid to my-self-in particular and the four of

which seemed to weigh on certainshoulders because of us, threatened to aesume proportions bordering" on the ludicrous. Many was the good laugh we got out of it. THE MOEALITT OF THE SYSTEM In my pamphlet on "Indentured Labor," I have furnished quotations from the Rev., C. F. Andrews' .reports, which reveal the reeking horror of the immorality which characterised (and still characterises) the system in Fiji. It will take decades of generations to eradicate the effects of the evil. All our investigations among the Indians went to prove the truth of the Rev. Andrews' statements. At Suva we were informed that the conditions surrounding, the employment of the Indians were sapping the moral foundations'; that many of those who are living as husband and.wife in Fiji are not married either according to Indian custom or Fiji Ordinance; wjjile many who are registered as married under the Fiji Ordinance are men with wives and women with husbands in India. Very many of the women have consorted with three or four men. The more thoughtful Indians complain that in many cases where they live there is no sanitation, no elementary rules of hygiene, and consequently a high mortality rate. WANT TO liEAYJS FIJI We were (old that the vast majortiy of the Indians are only waiting for ships to take them away from Fiji. Those of them who have lost their caste would prefer to go to British Guiana, where colonising facilities are offered. Others desire to return to India —"to leave this hell on earth created by the greed and avarice of the white planters and their Fiji Government." , When we drew their attention to a statement. Unun (ho whiten) to the effect, that only 1100 Indians had applied 'for passages from Fiji,, their reply was that when they had gone to make application, they had been told it was no use applying, no boats were available. This intimation had kept large numbers from making signed application. They declared that. would be an exodus whenever transport, facilities were provided. Some, they safd, had not yet been ten years on the islands, and were not entitled to free return passage until that period had expired. MUST HAVE CHEAP LABOR When certain of tho whites declaimed against the Indians and insisted on the menace to the lives of the Europeans during the recent trouble, I suggested that a solution of the trouble would be found in the wholesale repatriation of the Indians. "But we must have cheap labor," was the reply. The Indians were all right so long as they were kept in their place, and wero content with low wages, and rcsl rained from demanding polii.iiMl equality find social recognition and all Hint t-ort o£ tliini;. THE SEQI'EJ'i On Wednesday lat;t I receiver] a cable from Mr. Manilal at Suva, informing mo that the Governor had ordered his removal and that, ho was embarking or tho Atual Evidently the effort to secure a pnoeccution against him had failed.