§ MR. MARKHAMI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will lay upon the Table of the House a copy of the petition addressed to him last month by Mr. Abdool Gani, Chairman of the British Indian Association at Johannesburg, relating to the treatment accorded to British Indian subjects under Lord Milner's administration; and whether, 449 seeing that Mr. Abdool Gani states in this petition that British Indians were never subjected to the physical ill-treatment under the late Boer Government they are now suffering, will he instruct Lord Milner to follow the precedent adopted in 1898 and 1899 by reporting weekly to him on these grievances of Indian subjects.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINI have received a resolution passed at a meeting of British Indians at Johannesburg on 6th May, of which Mr. Abdool Gani was chairman. I do not propose to lay it on the Table. This resolution does not refer to physical ill-treatment, and I see no necessity for the proposed instruction. The whole subject is under consideration by the India Office and the Colonial Office, and I am in communication with Lord Milner on the matter.