vi THE INDIAN POPULATION 65 



find fault, but difficult to find a remedy, still perhaps in 

 this case the lines on which the remedy should run 

 seem fairly clear. 



The Indian says daily, and writes the same in his 

 newspapers, that he is as good a man as the European 

 and demands equal treatment with the same. By this 

 he means presumably that he would take any 

 advantages that the European may have which he, the 

 Indian, has not, but would not incur any of the 

 liabilities and responsibilities of the latter. I would 

 suggest that our answer to him should be: "Very 

 well, you say that you are equal to a European, you 

 shall in future incur his responsibilities and live like a 

 man and not like a beast." Thus it would be pointed 

 out that any European entering the country has to 

 show means of £$0 or else evidence that he is going 

 direct into some situation, and this liability would in 

 future be incurred by our Indian subjects as well. 

 Then I should point to his miserable hovels and say 

 that the lowest Europeans would not be allowed to live 

 in such as these, but must inhabit decent sanitary 

 buildings and that this privilege would be his also. 

 Finally, I would put forward every possible effort, and 

 would rout out every brothel, every illicit still, every 

 receiver of stolen property. If the owners of these 

 "businesses" had been Europeans they would long 

 ago have had short shrift, and the Indian claims to be 

 at least as good as the European. 



I firmly believe that by such means a plague-spot, 

 a great and damning reproach, may be removed, 

 and that in time the word Indian may be no longer a 

 term of reproach but even of congratulation through- 

 out the Protectorate. 



