THE DAILY PROVINCE
DECEMBER 3, 1907

p. 1

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN FOR
IMMIGRATION OF HINDUS
----------------Native Evangelist Says Steamship Company of
Calcutta Is Concerned.
---------------------

JOURNALIST GIVES VIEWS.
-------------------Will Advise Calcutta Publication to Keep People at
Home.

------------------Among the callers on Mayor Bethune this morning were Mr. Dumar, a
Hindu evangelist, and Mr. Bose, a representative of a Calcutta daily paper, who
has been sent to Canada by his publication for the purpose of writing up the
Hindu question as it is now existent here.
Mr. Dumar stated in answer to inquiries that he understood that a
campaign had been carried on in India with the idea of inducing the natives to
come to Canada. Behind the scheme was a steamship company running boats
from Calcutta which was advertising special rates and announcing the bright
opportunities of the Dominion.
These advertisements were skillfully scattered throughout the small
villages where there was a congestion of population and a condition of
extreme poverty. The result was that the natives, attracted by the
announcements, had sold all they had to get over here. “I learn this from my
countrymen in Tokyo and Hongkong,” said Mr. Dumar.” It was not so when I
was in India. Something, though, must be behind the great movement to this
country.”

THE DAILY PROVINCE
DECEMBER 3, 1907

p. 1

Mr. Bose said that before he left India he had not heard a word pointing
out the inadvisability of his countrymen coming to Canada, while, on the other
hand, the glowing letters from the men who had first come here and secured
positions wre[Sic] alluring bait to those remaining in India.
Both men said they had tried to grasp the local conditions in the two
days since their arrival in the city, and they realized much needed to be done.
They saw that their countrymen were living in such a condition as to invite
criticism from the public through, their uncleanliness and unsanitary methods
of life. They had advertised them along these lines, “I find them in places
where only thirty or forty men can live under sanitary conditions: yet they tell
me two, three hundred men crowded there. Such things only make trouble my
people with white men, and we want to stop t and get people live better.”
Both men said since they had come to the city they had found there was
trouble in the local Hindu camp because of the interference of white men who
had formerly been in India. Certain intelligent members of the race had tried
to initiate efforts of the betterment of their fellows; but these white men,
because they could not get control of the running of affairs, were now
persecuting the leaders who were working for the Hindus’ best interests.
“I am going to write my paper and tell them to advise my countrymen to
stop coming here. There are so many here now that no need more.” Said Mr.
Bose. “I think fully five thousand men come to Canada and the States lately.
Each man spends nearly 500 rupees traveling, and that is more than he can
save in many years. They are not fitted to your climate and can’t do housework but only work in sawmills.”