strictly enforced against European immigrants, it would be an injury to the Colony. If, on the other hand, it is enforced only against Asiatics it would be equally unjust and unfair in another direction. . . . If it is an anti-Asiatic Immigration Bill the Colony wants, let us have an anti-Asiatic Immigration Bill . . . So far we can approve of the position taken up by the Demonstration Committee; their tactics, however, were not particularly effective . . . It was also another mistake to drift, as Dr. MacKenzie did, into tall talk about fighting for his rights, and “cocking the rifle at the British Government”. We can assure the worthy doctor that expressions like these only disgust right-thinking Colonists.
The Natal Witness, of the 27th February, thus remarks:
- There is nothing more repugnant to an Englishman’s feelings than to have recourse to stratagems and chicanery to gain an object, and this Bill to restrict immigration is a flagrant attempt to compass an end by subterfuges. The Colony loses its self-respect and the respect of others in resorting to such means.
Referring to the exemption of the indentured Indians from the operation of the Bill, The Times of Natal of 23rd February writes:
- The provision indicates the inconsistency of the Colony generally. All know that the indentured Indians settle in the Colony, and yet all, or, at any rate, a big majority of the electorate, are resolved to have indentured Indians. This inconsistency is remarkable and shows unmistakably how divided is public opinion on the whole subject. Indians are objected to on the score of their ignorance; also because they compete as clerks and artisans, and also because of their commercial rivalry. It may be remembered that, during the recent commotion at Durban, a section of the demonstration was about to proceed to a ship which had just arrived with some Indians from Delagoa Bay, for the purpose of preventing their landing, when some individual called out that the Indians were merchants, and this satisfied the mob. That incident in itself was sufficient to show how sectional is the antagonism to the immigration of the coolie.
The most fatal objection, however, against those Bills is that they are intended to check an evil which does not exist. Nor is this all. There will be no finality to the anti-Indian legislation, if Her Majesty’s Government do not intervene on behalf of the Indian British subjects residing in the Colony. The Corporations have applied to the Government for powers to enable them to remove Indians to locations, to refuse to issue licences (this is
