1094 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [parTV
fear to influence their views in the past. On the contrary,
for many years they repeatedly protested before the Empire
and the civilized world against the policy and laws of the late
South African Republic in relation to this subject.
Those laws were indeed only partially enforced, yet His
Majesty’s Government is now asked not merely to sanction
their strict enforcement, but to set aside by legislation a
judgement of the Supreme Court which has given to the
British Indian rights for which His Majesty’s Government
have strenuously contended.
His Majesty's Government cannot believe that the British
community in the Transvaal appreciate the true nature of the
proposition which some of its members are pressing upon
you. They, as Britons, are as jealous of the honour of the
British name as ourselves, and even if a material sacrifice
were necessary to vindicate that honour, I feel assured they
would cheerfully make it. His Majesty’s Government hold
that it is derogatory to national honour to impose on resident
British subjects disabilities against which we had remon-
strated, and to which even the law of the late South African
Republic, rightly interpreted, did not subject them, and they
do not doubt that when this is perceived the public opinion
of the Colony will not any longer support the demand which
has been put forward.
The second Ordinance proposed, which will take the place
of Law No. 3 of 1885, should, therefore, not interfere with
the right of those now in the country to obtain licences to
trade outside locations, but should be limited to creating the
necessary machinery by means, I assume, of municipal
Regulations for placing Asiatics in locations in accordance
with the law, and should provide, in the case both of
present residents and of new-comers, that those required to
live in locations or bazaars should be so required for sanitary
reasons in each case, whilst those of a superior class should
be exempted and allowed to reside anywhere. With regard
to the question of the holding of land, British Indians who
are entitled to reside outside locations must at least have
the right to acquire property in the premises which they
occupy for business purposes.
His Majesty’s Government are also anxious that the con-
cessions which you favour respecting the exemption of
Asiatics of the better class, including all respectable shop-
keepers and traders, from humiliating disabilities under
municipal and other regulations applying to coloured per-
sons, should be secured as far as possible either under the
new Ordinance or by means of the machinery already pro-
