THE DAILY PROVINCE
AUGUST 9, 1906

p.1

TO INVESTIGATE HINDU INVASION
------------------OTTAWA MAKES A MOVE

------------------Inspector of Immigration Will Arrive in Vancouver in
Two Weeks to Look Into Problem--Labor Interests
Look upon the Race as Undesirable.

------------------Because of complaints from British Columbia against the invasion of the
hordes of Hindus who have made this province their Mecca within the last few
months, Mr. W. D. Scott of Ottawa, inspector of immigration for the
Department of the Interior, is coming to Vancouver to investigate the
situation.
Mr. Scott will arrive in the city in about two weeks’ time, according to
information received from Ottawa to-day. What he will do when he gets here
is a question of interest to a great many people. Certainly he will have no
difficulty in ascertaining that these dark-skinned natives of India threaten to
turn the labor market upside down, at least such is the opinion of labor men,
and in all probability the Trades and Labor Council will be able to supply Mr.
Scott with ample information on that point.
Thousands are Coming.
Hundreds of Hindus have already landed in British Columbia, and
thousands more are preparing to come. More than the Japanese or Chinese
they enter into competition with whites in the labor market, and they are
equaly[Sic] nonassimilative[Sic]. Since the Hindus have arrived in British
Columbia in fairly large numbers they have, according to police records,
caused proportionately more trouble for the police than any other race
represented here. Judging by the number of them who have appeared before

THE DAILY PROVINCE
AUGUST 9, 1906

p.1

the local police magistrate, the stipendiary magistrate and other courts, they
are by nature quarrelsome and litigious(?).
Puzzle to Lawyers.
At the present time the parliamentary committee of the Trades and
Labor Council is engaged in investigating the Hindu question, which is fast
becoming of grave import[Sic]. Despite the fact that members of this race are
debarred from New Zealand, Australia and Natal, local politicians and lawyers
are at a loss to know just how they could be kept out of Canada, because they
are all British subjects. The enactment of provincial legislation to shut them
out might be disallowed by the Dominion Government as was the case with
the Natal Act directed against the Japanese.