THE DAILY PROVINCE
NOVEMBER 18, 1913

HINDUS IN NATAL HAVE ALL QUIT
WORK

p.1

-------------------

Hundred and Fifty Thousand Men of East Indian
Blood Are on Strike.

--------------

Two Thousand Arrested When They Attempted to
Cross from Transvaal.

------------Fear that Serious Disorders May Break Out at Any
Moment.

-------------------

Likelihood that Strike May Spread to Other States
of the Union.

-------------------

Durban, Natal, Union of South Africa, Nov. 18.—The East Indian
residents of Natal have declared a general strike, which was accompanied by
rioting and the burning of sugar plantations. The police force is insufficient to
deal with the rioters and white women and children are in a state of terror.
Troops have been ordered to the affected districts.
The strike spread today to the South Coast and practically every one of
the 150,000 workmen of East Indian blood in Natal had laid down his tools at
noon. Thus far the strikers have been comparatively peaceable, but serious
disorders may break out at any moment.
Ill-feeling among the East Indians has been considerably augmented by
two incidents yesterday. The first was the death from flogging of a coal mine
laborer in Dundee, twenty miles north of Ladysmith. The second was the

THE DAILY PROVINCE
NOVEMBER 18, 1913

p.1

arrest of 2000 East Indians who attempted to cross from the Transvaal into
Natal.
Sympathetic Demonstration.

The federal law of the Union of South Africa prohibits the emigration of
Asiatics from one state to another. The East Indians from the Transvaal had
planned a demonstration in sympathy with the strikers in Natal.
The strike has paralyzed industry. The East Indians do practically all
the labor in Natal on the farms, railroads, sugar, tea and wattle plantations
and in the mines. Most of the mechanics and domestics are also of this race.
All the strikers have refused to pay their poll tax of $15 per head.
Likely to Spread.
The most alarming menace is the likelihood that the strike will spread to
other states.
The government is disinclined to declare martial law, as the
employment of imperial troops for the suppression of trouble would be
almost certain to cause discontent in British India, where the natives are
irritated over the treatment of East Indians in British colonies.