understood that a copy was also sent to the India Office) in regard to the position and treatment of British Indians domiciled in Vancouver and the adjacent districts of British Columbia, recommending the appointment of an experienced official to represent and protect the interests of these immigrants. Since that time we have been in communication with Mr. Robert Clark, a member of the above-named Association who is now in this country, and has made earnest representations on the subject. We beg to enclose for your Lordship's perusal a statement (somewhat abbreviated) of disabilities suffered by the Hindus, which has been forwarded to the Society by the local Association.

From this it will be seen that one of the most serious grounds of complaint relates to the prohibition of female immigrants. It is estimated that among about 4,0co British Indians now in British Columbia there are only five or six women, and no more are allowed by the Dominion Authorities to enter. It is hardly necessary to point out that this disproportion between the sexes leads to the gravest evils.

Further, the Indians point to the contrast between their treatment and that accorded to the Japanese who are allowed, under special treaty, to enter the province to the number of 400 per annum, which is often extended to 600 or 700. The Japanese are allowed to bring in their women without any restriction, and are admitted on showing that they possess 50 dollars on landing, while the Hindus have to possess 200 dollars.

Chinese immigrants are admitted on payment of 500 dollars per head without any limit in numbers, and, during twenty-four months in the years 1911-1913, 17,000 Chinese immigrants are said to have entered British Columbia. They are allowed as many women as they can support.

The British Indians feel very deeply the neglect with which their interests are regarded by Great Britain, and such neglect is only too likely to encourage disaffection and disloyal sentiments towards the Mother Country.

Mr. Robert Clark informs us that last year when feeling against these immigrants was strong and riots in Vancouver were feared, a number of old soldiers (Sikhs) who had fought British battles in many parts of the world and won medals for deeds of bravery, threw the medals into the sea, declaring that they wanted to have no more to do with the British Empire.

On behalf of our Committee, we submit that the time is rapidly approaching when the whole influence of the Indian Government and the India Office should be directed towards securing throughout His Majesty's dominions some means by which the Indian community may become articulate in Municipal and Colonial Administration.

It is obvious that local conditions must govern the particular procedure by which reforms are to find practical expression, and, possibly, as preliminary to any such action, His Majesty's Government might institute an official enquiry into the whole of this problem. If, for example, a commission could visit certain of the Colonies, the members would not only gather information of the utmost value to His Majesty's Government but would, at the same time, impress upon Colonial opinion the gravity of the issues at stake.

I am directed by Mr. Secretary Bonar Law to inform you that he has had under his consideration your letter of May 8, regarding the position of British Indians in British Columbia addressed to the Marquess of Crewe.

The position of Indians in the self-governing Dominions and Colonies is, as you are aware, a matter which received the constant and sympathetic attention of His Majesty's Government, but the time, as is indeed recognized in your letter, is not suitable for taking any active steps to deal with the question, even if the particular step suggested in the last sentence of your letter were one which the Governments of the Dominions were prepared to accept.

THE Contact of the White with the African race produces but two types of individuals that is, amongst those who have any individuality at all, others do not count. There is first the man who for some reason or from some motive takes up a hard, unsympathetic attitude towards the African: to this type the native is a "nigger "-too often a damned nigger,” incapable of the finer human feelings and aspirations, and therefore but an inanimate cog in the machinery of wealth production. The other type of white man is he who from the first looks upon the African as a man who,

with all his weaknesses, is entitled to justice, is capable of progress, open to intelligent argument, and finally, a co-operative unit in the production of wealth and social enjoyment; from this standpoint it is but a stage to that understanding of the African native which characterized the work of

Mary Kingsley and David Livingstone and scores of British administrators -such a man was John Holt, of Liverpool.

John Holt's place in West Africa can never be completely filled, neither can his influence for good ever be effaced; the seed was planted with such

Though more than

Iskill in soil which must bear fruit a thousand-fold. thirty years have elapsed since John Holt left West Africa to take up control of the Liverpool business, "Holtie" is still a name to conjure with amongst the natives of West Africa from Sherboro to the Congo. A year or two ago a diabolical scheme was started to secure native labourers for certain foreign plantations, but how to entice them on board ship was the problem. "I have it," said the principal. "We'll use Holt's name," and he did. The simple African hearing that "Holtie live for want boys crowded aboard, and not until the ship reached the foreign port did the natives discover how they had been deceived; then a cry was raised and a brutal fight ensued before the labourers were cowed. A few weeks ago many a native hut in West Africa was a place of weeping when the people heard that their friend "Holtie " had gone, but the fragrance of the British race will be sweeter for the memory of his personality in West Africa.

John Holt was no believer in the "lazy nigger" theory. It was his daily custom to cross the Mersey every morning to business in Liverpool, and as he passed a certain spot at the entrance to Water Street, he would frequently pause for a few minutes and watch the lumbering lorries as in endless stream they poured up from the docks; lorries with tons of timber; lorries with bales of cotton; lorries with huge hogsheads of oil; lorries laden high with bags of kernels; and as he paused he would say, sometimes in flashing indignation, sometimes in biting sarcasm-" And yet there are still fools who prate of the lazy nigger.".

This attitude towards the African was the more convincing because for years John Holt had lived amongst the natives; he knew the forests from which, by prodigious hand labour, they brought their mahogany logs; he had seen their patient methods of extracting rubber; he had watched with amused interest the old grannie as she cracked her palm nuts and extracted the kernels; he had paddled with them up and down their mighty rivers; he had shared their huts, their wails of sadness, their songs of joy, and even their meals. What wonder then that John Holt so perfectly understood African nature, and, knowing it, loved the African as few have done or can do.

To John Holt, unrestricted commerce with the African producer was a regenerating force, second only to sound missionary effort. "Treat that native fairly, he is your customer," was a favourite saying, and the following passage from a published speech shows the same attitude of mind:

"Our colonies in West Africa have never come to the Mother Country for money. They have always paid their way. How have they done it? In the simplest way possible. They have done it through the attraction of commerce. There is only one real way of making a success of these tropical countries, and that is by the attraction of trade."

AS A HOST.

The African is probably without an equal in giving lavish hospitality ; his whole conception is that of a "trusteeship" of this world's goods. Let a stranger visit his primitive town in the interior, and the Chief will at once place houses at his disposal for himself and his carriers, whilst his young men and maidens are instructed to bring forth the best that their sylvan larders can provide. John Holt was instinctively hospitable, but his contact with the Africans had made him more so. The front door of his house in Birkenhead was thrown widely open to all who took an interest in African affairs ; indeed, he was never so happy as when he was surrounded at his table with merchants, administrators, or missionaries, whose only password to Halstead House and its wealth of hospitality was African experience, whilst after dinner host and guests revelled in the folk-lore, trade and administrative problems of Africa until the small hours of the morning.

AS AN ADVISER.

In the task of regulating native affairs and securing the progressive advancement of the people, the need of sage advice from business men is imperative, and it was just here that John Holt excelled. He cared nothing for the limelight. To him the platform and public life held no attraction; all he asked was to be useful behind the scenes. It has often been our privilege to seek his counsel; he would listen patiently to whatever case was presented to him, and then quietly, but with intense earnestness, he would counsel this or that course, but always preface and conclude this advice with-" Do what is right, my boy."

The Colonial Office authorities frequently sought John Holt's advice. upon Colonial problems, one of the most recent instances being in 1910, when proposals were being considered for amending the land laws of Northern Nigeria. Foremost amongst his recommendations was that of appointing an official "to see that the native is not being imposed on or defrauded," whilst, with regard to the white applicants for land, he urged :

"

the underlying principle should be that every facility is given for the occupation and use of land so long as the person taking it is going to utilize it within a reasonable time, and is not treating it as a speculation.”

AS A PHILANTHROPIST.

One of the features of philanthropic work which most disheartens the individual worker is the attitude of some of their supporters who give grudgingly or of necessity; they give their subscription (or may be donation), as if there were some merit in accompanying it with a frown, sometimes even an insult which sears like a hot iron. There are some to whom nothing but the direst necessity would force one to make an appeal. John Holt