Last week I propounded this question to the Woman's Canadian Club: "A great many people say, let us welcome these people to our shores, but ladies, are you willing to give your daughters in marriage to Hindus, or your sons to marry Hindu women? You are asking us in British Columbia to do it!"
I say assimilation must mean intermarriage; are you prepared to adopt that course to give your own sons and daughters in marriage to these races? History tells us this fact, that the offspring of the intermarriage of Occidentals and Orientals shows detriment of both races, that there seem to gather within that offspring the vices of both races and the virtues of neither.
. . .
The ambition of the Oriental is to obtain the free right of travel, the free franchise of citizenship, and the right to sit in elective positions. They have asked me, "Why are not we given the full rights of British citizenship as you have it today?" I hold that we are not prepared to give the Hindus that right, because they have demonstrated that they are not even well ready for home rule [Indian self-government] as we have it in Canada. I claim that India is not in the same position as Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Anglo-Saxon law can never be administered by Hindus in India. The judges in India never register a conviction on the sole testimony of Hindus, but always require white testimony as well.
In British Columbia we have had this experience in relation to Hindu testimony, and Judge Shaw, Judge McKinnon, Judge Bull, and Judge Williams, all have refused to try a case concerning Hindus, because they cannot trust them. The other day, for example, a man came in with his breast lacerated, saying that two Hindus had wounded him, but it was found out that this man himself had put some pieces of glass in the wall and rubbed his breast against them, his object being to get revenge upon his fellow Hindu for some reason or other. The other two men, when the Government discovered this fraud, were put in prison for perjury.
. . .
If the Hindu is truly Imperial, why does he not content himself with seeking to build up the Empire in countries and under conditions where he is eminently fitted to do it? In India, Egypt, North Africa, where he is equipped to live in the climatic conditions as not all people are, there is a chance to demonstrate his enthusiasm for the Empire.
. . .
The ambition of the Oriental is to obtain the free right of travel, the free franchise of citizenship, and the right to sit in elective positions. They have asked me, "Why are not we given the full rights of British citizenship as you have it today?" I hold that we are not prepared to give the Hindus that right, because they have demonstrated that they are not even well ready for home rule [Indian self-government] as we have it in Canada. I claim that India is not in the same position as Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Anglo-Saxon law can never be administered by Hindus in India. The judges in India never register a conviction on the sole testimony of Hindus, but always require white testimony as well.
In British Columbia we have had this experience in relation to Hindu testimony, and Judge Shaw, Judge McKinnon, Judge Bull, and Judge Williams, all have refused to try a case concerning Hindus, because they cannot trust them. The other day, for example, a man came in with his breast lacerated, saying that two Hindus had wounded him, but it was found out that this man himself had put some pieces of glass in the wall and rubbed his breast against them, his object being to get revenge upon his fellow Hindu for some reason or other. The other two men, when the Government discovered this fraud, were put in prison for perjury.
. . .
If the Hindu is truly Imperial, why does he not content himself with seeking to build up the Empire in countries and under conditions where he is eminently fitted to do it? In India, Egypt, North Africa, where he is equipped to live in the climatic conditions as not all people are, there is a chance to demonstrate his enthusiasm for the Empire.
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