SOUTH AFRICA 709 



sions. They are lawyers, doctors, land surveyors and journalists. One native was 

 elected (1910) a member of the first Cape provincial council. A clash between the two 

 races is feared by many thoughtful leaders of the white community. One solution of 

 the problem favoured is the keeping of whites and blacks in separate areas. General 

 Botha in a speech in parliament (May 9, 1912) stated that " the time was coming when 

 the native question would have to be considered most seriously in the direction of keep- 

 ing whites and natives apart and preventing their intermingling. They would have to 

 fix attention closely on the question of segregation, while treating everyone with absolute 

 justice." 



The segregation plan also received the support, among many others, of Sir Mathew 

 Nathan, an ex-governor of Natal, and General Hertzog. But it was opposed by those 

 who, like Mr. P. W. Schreiner and Mr. Patrick Duncan (a leading member of the Union- 

 ist party), believe that it is both wrong and impolitic to put hindrances in the way of the 

 advancement of the natives in civilisation and industrial efficiency. Mr. Duncan in a 

 striking pamphlet published in October 1912 ("Suggestions for a Native Policy") 

 admits the dangers foreseen by the segregationists, but sees a remedy in European immi- 

 gration on a large scale. " Nothing else " he declares " will save South Africa for the 

 European race." A motion brought forward at the Unionist Congress in Johannesburg 

 (Nov. 21, 1912) to commit the party to the policy of segregation was defeated, the 

 previous question being carried by 91 votes to 7. 



Consciousness of the peril of the native problem caused the white inhabitants of 

 South Africa to determine not willingly to add to it an Asiatic problem of equal perplexi- 

 ty. They exhibited a rigid determination to prohibit the immigration of Asiatics in 

 the future alike on racial and economic grounds. The only dissentients were tea and 

 sugar planters of Natal who were accustomed to depend upon coolies for labour. In 

 1911 and again in 1912 the government introduced an Immigrants Restriction Bill. 

 General Smuts, Minister of the Interior, in moving the second reading of the bill, May 

 30, 1912, said that without excluding Asiatics by name the government had adopted 

 the suggestion of the British Colonial Office (a suggestion supported by the government 

 of India) to apply to immigrants an educational and medical test based on the Australian 

 model. That test admitted of elasticity in its application so that whites might be en- 

 couraged to come in while Asiatics were kept out. An arrangement had been come to 

 with the Imperial Government to allow the entry of educated professional Asiatics in 

 limited numbers. Objections to any concessions to Indians were raised by the Free 

 State supporters of the ministry and the bill was dropped, but in September 1912 the 

 intention of the cabinet to introduce an amended bill in 1913 .was announced. In 

 October 1912 Mr. Gokhale, an elected member of the Indian Legislative Council, visited 

 South Africa and in November went to Pretoria as the guest of the Union government 

 to confer with them on the matter. The Indian government on its part had meantime 

 (1911) prohibited the importation of indentured Indians to Natal. 



Little indication was given of the mann ; r in which the Union government meant to 

 deal with " the Indian peril " in Natal. There are in Natal 133,000 Indians; they are 

 more numerous than the whites; they are moreover not only labourers, they have monop- 

 olised several branches of trade. It would seem that they must remain a permanent 

 factor in the life of Natal. But to prevent the same problem arising in the Transvaal 

 the law of 1907 prohibiting the immigration of Asiatics into that province, and enacting 

 the registration by finger prints of Indians already in the province, was enforced (see 

 E. B. xxvii, 209, 210). In many cases the provincial administration applied the law 

 in an unnecessarily objectionable form. The Indians replied by a campaign of passive 

 resistance. Many of their leaders, high caste Hindus, were imprisoned and great 

 indignation was aroused in India by what Mr. Gokhale called " the continued ill-treat- 

 ment of Indians in South Africa." Before the end of 1911, however, certain modifica- 

 tions in the registration laws were agreed to by the provincial council, the exact status 

 of British Indians in the Transvaal being left over for decision with the larger question 

 of Asiatic immigration. 



