DR. RUTHERFORDI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the new tramway regulations of the Johannesburg Town Council; whether the reservations in the Transvaal Letters Patent in respect of any law whereby persons not of European birth or descent may be subjected or made liable to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of European birth or descent are not also subjected or made liable apply to municipal by-laws since enacted within the Transvaal Colony under which British-Indians are subjected to disabilities and restrictions of a differential and humiliating character; and, if the reservations do not apply, whether His Majesty's Government is without any means of extending its protection to our British-Indian fellow-subjects against such differential treatment by Transvaal municipalities and similar corporations.
§ The UNDERSECRETARY of STATE FOR the COLONIES (Mr. Churchill,) Manchester, N. W.Yes, Sir. I have seen the regulations. Section 39 of the Letters Patent does not apply to municipal regulations. This is not a subject upon which representations could be made by the Secretary of State to the responsible Government with any advantage.