DR. RUTHERFORD (Middlesex, Brentford)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, while under the Government of the Transvaal Republic, the £3 fee payable by Asiatics under Law 3 of 1885, as amended in 1886, was very generally not enforced, several thousand British-Indians, being I pre war residents, were, shortly after our annexation, compelled to pay £3 each for the privilege of remaining in the new Colony.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI am informed that the provision referred to was not
§ † See (4) Debates, clxxx., 796.
1592§ enforced in its full strictness by the Executive Government of the South African Republic. The failure to enforce the special laws affecting Indians caused great dissatisfaction among the white community, and formed the subject of repeated resolutions of the Volksraad calling upon it to enforce them. Eventually in November, 1898, the Executive Council by resolution declared that from 1st January, 1899, local authorities were to compel compliance with the provisions of the law, subject to such concessions as to time—with the extreme limit of six months—as circumstances might demand, and this resolution was being acted upon when the war broke out. I understand that the law has been enforced for the last four years.