Appendix I, — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
limiting future Indian immigration to a minimum, number annually of highly educated men, whose services would be required for the higher needs of the Indian community. To this despatch was appended the condition that nothing that was done to settle the Transvaal controversy at the expense of the Indians residing in the Coast Provinces would be satisfactory to the Imperial Government. The Union Ministers responded in a friendly manner, the struggle became less acute, and ultimately, in 1911, a Union Immigration Bill was published, purporting to settle the controversy that had been raging for so long. The new measure, however, obviously did not serve its purpose, for, whilst repealing the Asiatic Act of 1907, saving the rights of minors that had been declared by the Appellate Division of the Surpreme Court, in the Chotabhai case, the Bill did not remove the racial bar, but rather extended it throughout the Union, by reason of the Orange Free State entry question, and it took away other rights not only from Transvaal Indians, but from those resident in the Coast Provinces. An unanimous outcry arose from them, negotiations were re-opened, and the suggestion was thrown out by the Passive Resistance leaders that the Bill should be replaced by one limited to the Transvaal alone, which, however, was not adopted. Eventually it was found impossible to pass the Bill, and a provisional settlement was arranged, whereby
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