ain, you are up
against a side of the subject that is neither violet water nor pink tea;
but--it is a vital side of the subject. For the same reason that the
South objects to and passes laws against mixed unions of the races.
These laws are not the registration of prejudice. They are the
registration of terrible lessons in experience. It is not a matter of
opinion. It is a matter of fact. What is feared is not the marriage of
a Sikh who is refined to a white woman who knows what she is doing. What
is feared is the effect of that union on the lewd Hindu; the effect on
the safety of the uncultured white woman and white girl. Any one on the
Coast who has lived next to Asiatics, any one in India or the Philippines
knows what this means in terms of hideous terrible fact that can not be
set down here. Vancouver knows. "I'll see," said an officer in the
Philippines of his native valet, "that the--dog turns up missing;" and
every man present knew why; and when the officer set out on an unnamed
expedition with his valet, the valet did "turn up missing." There are
vices for which a white man kills. "Have not the English carried vices
to India?" a Hindu protagonist asked me. Yes, answered British Columbia,
but we do not purpose poisoning the new young life of Canada to
compensate the vices of English soldiers who have gone to pieces morally
in India.
As to shutting Canadians out of India, Canada would accept that challenge
gladly. When Canadians carry vices to India--says Canada--shut them out.
These are the reasons given for the Pacific Coast's aversion to the
Hindu, and even with the arguments stated explicitly, there is a great
deal untold and untellable.
For instance, some of the leaders talking loudest in Eastern Canada in
the name of the Sikh are not Sikhs at all, and one at least has a
criminal record in San Francisco.
For instance again, when the coronation festivities were on in England,
there was a very peculiar guard kept round the Hindu quarters. It would
be well for some of the eastern women's clubs to inquire why that was;
also why the fact was hushed up that two white women of bad character
were carried out of that compound dead.
Said a mill owner, one who employs many Hindus, "If the East could
understand how some of these penniless leaders grow rich, they would
realize that the Hindu has our employment sharks beaten to a frazzle. I
take in a new man from one of these leaders. The leader g
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