36 THE BOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION lowed to enter or remain in the Colony. This is a very serious matter. As your Excellency is aware, the "joint- family" system prevails all over India. Brothers and sisters and their children live under the same roof from generation to generation, and the eldest member in the family is nominally, as well as in reality, the supporter and the bread-earner. There is, therefore, nothing unu- sual in Indians bringing the children of their relatives into the country, and it is submitted that it will be a very serious injustice if such children, who have hither- to been left unmolested, are either deported from the Colony or prevented from entering the Colony. The Government, again, intend to require the female relatives of resident Indians also to be registered, in the same- manner as the males. The British Indian Association has sent an emphatic protest against any such measure, and has even submitted that it would be prepared to iight the question in a court of law, as, according to the- advice given to it, wives of resident Indians are not required to take out registration certificates and pay .9 3. THE ENTRY OF SPECIAL CLERKS, ETC. No new permits are granted by the Government, no matter how necessary it may be in _certain cases. We were all extremely pleased to read in the papers your Excellency’s emphatic declaration that the. vested inte- rests of the Indians who are already settled in the country should not be disturbed or touched. There are merchants who have constantly to draw upon India for confidential clerks, in order to enable them to carry on their business. It is not easy to pick out reliable men from the resident population. That is the experience of merchants all over, and belonging to all communities. If therefore,
