THE DAILY PROVINCE
NOVEMBER 6, 1913

TO KEEP HINDUS FROM COMING TO
CANADA
(Special Copyright Cable to the Vancouver Daily Province and Montreal Star)

------------------LONDON, NOV. 6.—It is understood that Mr. Lewis Vernon Harcourt,
the colonial secretary and the Marquis of Crewe(?), the secretary of state for
India, are now considering the Canadian proposals for a revision of the
regulations affecting the Canadian immigration of Hindus with a view to
effecting a stoppage, by friendly arrangement with the Indian Government, on
the ground that the Hindus are non-assimilable with the Canadian population.
The embarrassing position of the British Indians in South Africa is
regarded as a potent object lesson on the folly of repeating the blunder in
Canada. The Hindus now in London met yesterday and organized a powerful
agitation to assist their fellow countrymen’s resistance to the law in South
Africa. The leader of the movement, Gokhale, has now returned from Bombay
and predicts that the fiercest struggle is impending to prevent the dominant
Dutch party in South Africa from crushing out the Indian community. A move
will be made at the next session of the Vice-Regal Council at Delhi, demanding
that the Indian Government send a mission to South Africa to warn the
government that serious consequences to the Empire threaten unless justice
is done.
Secretary Harcourt is especially attacked for shirking the marriage
difficulty. The Indians demand the amendment of the South Africa law to
recognize the legality of monogamous Indian marriages celebrated according
to Hindu and Mohammedan rites. Mr. Harcourt suggests that this may mean
the legal recognition of polygamy. The Indians replying that although both
religious sanction polygamy, only 1 per cent of Indian marriages are
polygamous.
WINDERMERE.