§ SIR WILLIAM WEDDERBURN (Banffshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has received a petition, dated May last, from British Indian traders in the South African Republic, complaining that they have been ordered to remove, by the 1st of July, to locations at a distance from their places of business; whether the alleged necessity for such removal is sanitation; whether he will cause inquiry to be made whether this removal is really required on sanitary grounds; and, if so, whether the removal is being effected in the way least liable to cause hardship and loss to those affected; and whether Sir A. Milner made any representation regarding the grievances of British Indian traders at the recent Conference with the President of the South African Republic.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINI have not yet received from the High Commissioner the petition of which a copy has been placed in my hands by the hon. Baronet. The facts are as follow: A law was enacted in the South African Republic in 1885 with the consent of Her Majesty's Government, which empowered the Government of the South African Republic for sanitary purposes to assign streets, wards, and locations for habitation by Asiatics. A difference arose between Her Majesty's Government and the Transvaal 270 Government as to the scope of the law, and they referred the matter to the arbitration of the Chief Justice of the Orange Free State, who decided that the Government of the South African Republic were entitled to carry out the law, subject solely to the interpretation of the courts of the Transvaal. Her Majesty's Government accepted the award, but reserved the right to make friendly representations to the South African Republic with a view to more generous treatment of the Indians. No action was taken by the Government of the South African Republic pending the decision by the Court of a test case, which was to settle whether the Government had the right to assign to the Indians places for business as well as for residence. The decision was given in August last, and was in favour of the Government of the South African Republic. Sir Alfred Milner, when he returned in February last, was instructed to endeavour to effect some arrangement favourable to the Indians, but the Government of the South African Republic declined to make any arrangement unless Her Majesty's Government were prepared to surrender certain rights of the Cape boys and other coloured persons. Sir Alfred Milner was then instructed at the beginning of May to ask in a friendly way for the favourable consideration of, at least, the better class of Indians, if not of all, suggesting the possibility of creating an Asiatic quarter within each town, and pointing out that the sanitary considerations on which the law is based cannot be applicable to all Indians without distinction. Notice had, however, in the meantime been issued by the Government of the South African Republic requiring the Indian traders to remove to places assigned to them by the 1st of July. The latest information shows that these locations have been assigned inside the towns at twenty-two places in the Republic, but that in Pretoria and Johannesburg the Government intend to compel the Indians to live in locations outside the town, but propose that a block of ground shall be set aside for a certain number of them for trading purposes inside the town. With a view to obtaining equitable treatment of the Indians Her Majesty's Government have used every friendly means left open to them by their predecessors' acceptance of the law of 1885, by the indefinite terms in which that law is 271 couched, and by the difficulty and uncertainty of the result of appeals to the law courts of the Republic. The matter is one of a number in which the views and wishes of Her Majesty's Government and that of the South African Republic are not in accord, and which would have been brought forward by Sir A. Milner at the Bloemfontein Conference had the discussion proceeded beyond the question of the franchise.