cms issue ear scream 57 The Transvaal British Indian Deputation arrived in London on the 10th day of July last. The enclosed state- ment of the British Indian case in that Colony was pre- pared immediately after the arrival in London of that Deputation, but it was not issued as delicate negotiations with a view to arriving at a quiet settlement were in progress. We have nowlearnt that these have proved abortive and that the position remains unchanged. It has, therefore, become necessary for us to inform the public as to how the matter stands and what the struggle of the British Indians in the Transvaal means. The ex-Colonial Secretary of the Transvaal, during its administration as a Crown Colony, writing in a magazine in South Africa in the month of February last, thus correctly summed up the question! °° The position ol the Indian leaders is that they will tolerate no law which does not put them on an equality with Europeans in regard to restriction on immigration. They are willing to see the number oi Asiatics limited by administrative action ............... They insist on equality in the terms ot the law itself. That is still the position. Mr. Smuts, the present Colonial Secretary of the 'Transvaal, offers to repeal the Registratidn Law around which the struggle has been raging for the last three years, and to concede to a limited number of British Indians, other than former residents ol the Transvaal, certificates of permanent residence. Were the object aimed at by the British Indians the admission into the Colony oi a iew more of their brethren, this concession would be material, but the object they have had in view in agitating for the repeal of the Law being to secure legal or theoretical equality in respect of immigration, their purpose is by the proposed maintenance of the legal disability not advanced a step. We are not aware whether the above
