71

A—6

Position in South Africa itself. The difficulties from, the African point of view are very great. Sir Tej has said — and quite, rightly —that the majority of the population of the British Empire are coloured. That is so. But let me make this remark : all through the very able and moderate argument of Sir Tej he referreel to this colour question and the indignity which was either openly or by inference inflicted on those British subjects who have colour. Well, I wish to say that, so far as we in South Africa arc concerned, it is not a question of colour, it is a different principle that is involved. Question not one of Colour but of Economic Competition. I think that every thinking man in South Africa takes the, attitude, not that the Indian is inferior to us be:cause of his colour or on any other ground—he may bo our superior ; it is the case of a small ci vilization —a small community—finding itself in danger of being overwhelmed by a, much older and more powerful civilization ; and it is the economic competition from people wher have entirely different standards and viewpoints from ourselves. From the African point of view, what is the, real difficulty ? You have a continent inhabited by a hundred million blacks, where a few small white, communities have settled down as the, pioneers of European civilization. You cannot blame these, pioneers—these very small communities —in South Africa and in Central Africa if they put up every possible fight for the civilization which they started, their own European civilization. They are not there to foster Indian civilization, they are there to foster Western civilization, and they regard as a very serious matter anything that menaces their position, which is already endangered by the many difficulties which surround them in Africa. In South Africa our position, in a nutshell, is as follows : In the Union we have a Native population of over six millions ; we have a white population of over a million and a half; we have, an Indian population of something like 160,000, mostly confined to one province, to the most British province in the Union, the Province, of Natal. Particularly in Natal. Mr. Sastri, in one, of his somewhat outrageous statements, referred to this as a Boer empire, an empire which is swamped by Boer ideals. Well, the fact is that the Indian difficulties have mostly arisen, and continue to grow, in a part of South Africa where there are almost no Boers at all, in an almost purely British community ; but you have in this province of Natal a, majority of Indians and a minority of British settlers ; and, whatever the mistakes of the past may have been, the grandchildren of to-day do not plead guilty to the errors of their ancestors, and they want to right the situation and safeguard the future for themselves arid their children. Suffrage Qualifications in South African Provinces. What is the position ? In the, Cape of Good Hope and the Cape Province we have a franchise, a property and income and literary franchise, and in that province the Indians are on exactly the same footing and have the same, franchise as the whites ; no difference is made. But in the other three provinces of tho Union we have a manhood suffrage. In tho two provinces of the interior—the Transvaal and the Free State —that franchise was laid down by the British Government, and not by ourselves. When we received a constitution after the Boer War, many years ago, this constitution contained manhood suffrage, and that has remained the state of affairs up to to-day, and will probably remain the state of affairs for a long time. The tendencies in South Africa, just as elsewhere, are all democratic. You cannot go back on that manhood suffrage. Once it has come, you will probably pass on from manhood suffrage to universal suffrage. That was the 'act of the British Government, and not of the people of South Africa. Entension of Franchise to Indians is impossible. How are you going to work that in with an Indian franchise ? If an Indian franchise were given, it has to be identical; no differentiation would be allowed by Indian public opinion—and quite rightly. Well, the result would be that in Natal, certainly, you would at once have, an Indian majority among the voters. But our difficulty is still greater. You have a majority of blacks in the Union, and, if there is to be an equal manhood suffrage over the Union, tho whites would bo swamped by the blacks ; you cannot make a distinction between Indians and Africans ; you would be impelled by tho inevitable force of logic to "go the whole hog," and the result would be that not only would the whites be swamped in Natal by the Indians, but the whites would be swamped all over South Africa by the, blacks, and the whole position for which we have striven for \ wo hundred years or more now would be given up. So far as South Africa is concerned, therefore, it is a question of impossibility. Sir Tej and his colleagues say, quite rightly, that for India it is a question of dignity. For South Africa--for white South Africa —it is not a question of dignity, but a question of existence, and no Government could for a moment tamper with this position or do anything to meet the Indian point of view. 1921 Resolution a Mistake. That is why I think the resolution passed in 1921 was a mistake. I thought it then—l still think it —a great mistake. We got on the wrong road there. For the first time we passed a resolution through this Conference by a majority. It has never been done before, and. Ido hope it will never occur again. Our procedure in this Conference has been by way of unanimity. If we cannot convince each other we agree to differ and to let the matter stand over. But, for once, we departed from that most salutary principle, which I consider fundamental to the whole Empire, and we passed that resolution by a majority. I had to stand out. But that has made things worse in South Africa. South Africa now certainly sees that she has to stand to her guns much more resolutely than she would have done otherwise. I think we made a mistake in 1921, and that is why I suggested the other alternative consideration of this subject.