48 THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION enforce Law 3 of 1885, he suggested new registration,. We protested against it, hut on his strong advice, as a voluntary act, we allowed ourselves to be newly registered; and hence the form produced before Your Lordship. At the time the registration was undertaken, Lord Milner stated emphatically that it was a measure once for all, and that it would form a complete title to residence by those who hold such registration certificates. Is all this now to be undone? ‘ Your Lordship is doubtless aware of the Punia case, wherein a poor Indian woman in the company of her husband, was torn away from her husband, and was ordered by the Magistrate to leave the country within seven hours. Fortunately, relief was granted in the end, as the matter was taken up in time. A boy under eleven years was also arrested and sentenced to pay a fine of £ 30 or to go to gaol for three months, and at the end of it to leave the country. In this case, again, the Supreme Court has been able to grant justice. The con- viction was pronounced to be wholly bad, and Sir James Bose-Innes stated that the Administration would bring upon itself ridicule and contempt if such a policy was pursued. If the existing legislation is strong enough, and severe enough to thus prosecute British Indians, is it not enough to keep out of the colony British Indians who may attempt fraudulently to enter it? It has been stated that the reason for passing the Ordinance is that there is an unauthorised iniiux of British Indians into the Transvaal, on a wholesale scale, and that there is an attempt, on the part of the Indian community, to introduce Indians in such a manner. The last charge has been, times without number, repudiatedr
