THE DAILY PROVINCE JULY 14, 1914 RECRUITS TO TEACH SEDITION WANTED HERE BY HINDUS p.1 ------------------- Four Hundred Volunteers Are Bing Sought for Service in India, According to Reliable Reports— Will Raise Indian “Missionary” Force of 1000, Including Komagata Maru Contingent—Party Goes East. ------------------TRY TO GET SHIP FOR HALIFAX ------------------- Behari Lal Verma Wants to Charter Boat to Carry 500 East Indians to Nova Scotia from Bombay – Gurdit Singh’s Advertisement in India Is an Interesting Document. ------------------Four hundred Hindus vounteers(Sic) are wanted to go back to India with the passengers on the Komagata Maru and preach sedition against the British Empire. A Mohammedan priest preached in the Sikh Temple here on Saturday night and urged his hearers to join in the movement. Six Hindus have just come from Golden, B. C., and are now addressing meetings of the Hindus in this city urging the same thing. They propose to canvass Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and other centres in British Columbia with their propaganda. According to those who are following the movement, it is intended to raise a force including the 400 volunteers and the 350 Komagata Maru passengers shortly to be deported. Tried to Buy in Victoria. THE DAILY PROVINCE JULY 14, 1914 p.1 An effort was made last week by several Hindus to buy revolvers in a Victoria store. They bargained for twenty-five of them on the installment plan, but were not successful in obtaining any. Local Hindus have also tried to buy guns in Vancouver stores, it is claimed. This either means that they propose to accelerate the seditionary movement in India or else they are going to attempt to get the Komagata Maru Hindus on land here, by force if necessary. The police here have been warned to notify second-hand stores and hardware merchants. Fifteen Hinds from Golden, which appears to be a hot-bed for them, have gone east with the ostensible object of meeting Dr. Sundar Singh there and proceeding to England to interview King George. Possibly, however, they may be going east to attempt to gain entrance to the United States, thence coming west to the Pacific Coast states to get volunteers for India service from among the Hindus working across the border line. It is known that it would be impossible for them to get into the States on the coast, here. Gurdit Singh’s Pamphlet. Further with regard to the enterprise of Gurdit Singh of the Komagata Maru fame, Indian newspapers just received, give a full translation of an advertisement circulated by Gurdit Singh as a manager of the Siri-Guru-Nanak Steamship Company. This advertisement is of particular significance, in view of the fact that Gurdit Singh now contends that he took all precaution s before leaving Hongkong, thoroughly to satisfy himself that he would be permitted to land in this country. To this intent, he says, he consulted the written opinion of a leading firm of lawyers in Hongkong. The translation of his pamphlet is quoted below, and his statements made here to the press and the public, through his solicitors, do not at all agree with his Indian advertisement. Ship for Halifax. It further appears that another East Indian name Behari Lal Verma, who styles himself as secretary of the American-Indian colonization Company, Vancouver, is now negotiating with Towner, Jones & Co., of Bombay, for a vessel capable of carrying 500 third-class Hindus via the Suez Canal to Halifax, THE DAILY PROVINCE JULY 14, 1914 p.1 Nova Scotia. Verma, who has had a previous residence in Vancouver, attempted to charter a boat in Hongkong for the same purpose, but with no success, in view of the fact that East Indians residing in Hongkong and vicinity are of the Sikh faith, and of which caste, unfortunately, Verma is not a member . Having, however, set the ball rolling and having found these people will to undertake an enterprise of this nature, Gurdit Singh soon assumed control of the situation at Hongkong with the result that Verma is now trying to bring a horde from Bombay. Up to the time of writing, Verma’s enterprise seems to have met with no success, inasmuch as the protector of emigrants, the government official in Bombay, has refused to issue permits for the 500 emigrants to leave for Canada. Gurdit’s Helping Hand. The pamphlet is headed God is one, Victory be to him. Congratulation! Congratulation!” and the wording is in a similarly unbusinesslike strain. “When I went to Hongkong in January, 1914,” he writes, “I saw a number of people awaiting in Gurdwara to sail for Vancouver. They are to suffer all sorts of inconvenience and trouble. I could not see them in this miserable plight and resolved to give them a helping hand. Therefore on my return to Singapore I promised with those intending passengers to write to me if they could not get tickets, and that I would try to secure tickets for them; that I would go to the Supreme Court of Canada and have this question settled once and for all in our favor; and if the Canadian Government refused to accede to our requests, I will ask some questions form the government of India and a full report thereof will be published for the information of Hindustanis. “For this purpose a steamer has been chartered from March 14, 1914, because when we will have a steamer entirely at our disposal the passengers could be landed safely and without any inconvenience. During the first trip we expect to get about 300 passengers and the next will sail from Calcutta. THE DAILY PROVINCE JULY 14, 1914 A Regular Business. p.1 “Now I am confident that the steamer belonging to the Siri Guru Nanak Steamship Co., will go round the whole world and there is every hope that the company will be registered on the steamer’s arriving at Vancouver. I have taken the whole thing upon my own shoulders. Nobody has come forward to buy any shares in the said company as yet. It is expected that this lucrative business will induce others to join the company as partners. Let us pray to Guru to land the passengers safely. On its return back, the steamer will take passengers for Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Penang and Calcutta, and the passengers from the Malay Archipelago will be taken on board free of cost. It will again sail form Calcutta to Vancouver from July next.” Denial was entered this morning by the immigration authorities here to the statements made in telegrams despatched by shore Hindus yesterday to Ottawa, declaring that their countrymen on the Komagata Maru were “dying from hunger and thirst.” “There is absolutely no truth in the rumors which are being circulated by the Hindus to influence public sympathy,” asserted Mr. Malcolm J. Reid, superintendent of immigration. “Sufficient supplies to sustain the men on the boat are being sent out to the vessel together with plenty of water.”