is thus diraofo and precise. While ib is true that) the Home Government is slow to interfere with the Acts of the Colonial Legislatures, there are instances where it has Dot hesitated io put its foot down on occasions less urgent than the present! one- As you are aware, the repeal of the first Franchise Bill was due to such wholesome intervention, What is more the Colonists are ever afraid of it. And as a result of the sympathy expreased in England and the sympathetic answer given by Mr Chamberlain to the Deputation that waited on him some months ago most of the papers in South Africa, at any rate in Natal have veered round considerably. As to the Transvaal there is the convention. As to the Orange Free State I can only say that it is an unfriendly act on the part of a friendly State 60 shut her doors against any portion of Her Majesty's subjects. And as such I humbly think is can be effectively checker].
It may not be amiss to quote a few passaged from the London Times articles bearing on the question of intervention as well as the whole question generally.
The whole question resolves itself into this. Are Her Majesty's Indian subjects to be treated as a degraded and an out-caste race by a friendly government or are they to have the same rights and status as other British subjects enjoy ? Are leading Muhammadan merchants who might sit in the Legislative Council at Bombay, to be liable to indignities and outrage in the South African Republic ? We are continually telling our Indian subjects that the economic future of their country depends on their ability to spread themselves out and to develop their foreign trade. What answer can our Indian Government give them if it fails to secure to them the same protection abroad which is secured to the subjects of every other dependency of the Crown ?
It is a mockery to urge our Indian fellow-subjects to embark on external commerce if the moment they leave India they lose their rights as British subjects, and can be treated by foreign governments as a degraded and an out-caste race.
In another article it says :—
The matter is eminently one for good offices and for influence, for that "friendly negotiation " which Mr. Chamberlain promises,
