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servatives. That is only what is to be expected from that source. As a matter of fact the man, so I am informed. acted as a Socialist scrutineer.
"I am astounded that such a mistake as the plac- ing of the name of a Hindu on the list could have been made at the office of the registrar of voters. Of course the Vancouver city list is a very large one, and I presume the man's application slipped through accidentally.
me
"As soon as the matter was reported to I put the case in the hands of Crown Prose cutor McKay, instructing him to lose no time in investigating and acting if he determined that a pro- secution would lie under the circumstances. Mr. McKay is at this moment searching at the office of the registrar of voters for the original application form on which Rahim swore that he was qualified as an elector in the Vancouver City electoral dis- trict."
RAHIM ADJOURNED ON $10,000 BAIL.
Houssein Rahim, a Hindu merchant of Vancou- ver, was brought before Magistrate Shaw in the Police Court charged with perjury. After the charge had been stated His Worship fixed bail at $10,000 and adjourned the case until Monday (1st April, 1912).
The detectives who made the arrest also executed a warrant of search of the effects of Rahim. To a representatve of the Vancouver Daily Province, Detective Thompson said:
"We found among Rahim's papers a quantity of Industrial Workers of the World literature, also a petition signed by a number of Hindus for the re- moval of Mayor Findlay from office."
Rahim was arrested yesterday afternoon on a warrant signed by Arthur Sampson, chief of the provincial police of this city, and executed by De- tectives Thompson and Levis of the city force. The warrant alleges that Houssein Rahim did on the 14th day of September, 1911, swear falsely before William E. Flumerfelt in that he was a qualified elector in the Vancouver electoral district.
The maximum penalty for conviction on such a charge is fourteen years' imprisonment.
RAHIM COMMITTED ON PERJURY CHARGE.
There was political color and an echo of the re- cent elections in the preliminary hearing of the charge of perjury against the Hindu, Houssein Ra- him, who was committed for trial by Magistrate
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Shaw, on April 1st. Mr. W. M. McKay, Crown pro- secutor, appeared for the proscution, and Mr. G. E. McCrossan for the accused.
Mr. Geo. D. McKay, Registrar of Voters, admit- ted placing Rahim's name on the list from an affi- davit signed by Mr. Flumerfelt, whom he knew to be a commissioner duly appointed for taking affi- davits under the Provincial Elections Act. He said he had no suspicion in placing the name on the list, as there were Russian and other foreign names somewhat like it, and where you had between 20,- 000 and 25.000 names to deal with, it was impossible to scrutinize each closely.
"So you let this name pass?" said Mr. Mc- Crossan.
"Yes, I did."
"Well, I am not blaming you," said Mr. McCros- san. "It is the system."
Mr. W. E. Flumerfelt admitted that the signa- ture attached to the affidavit was his.
“And did this Hindu. Houssein Rahim. appear before you on this occasion?" asked Mr. McKay.
"No," said the witness, "he never appeared be- fore me at all. I think somebody has tried to play me and get this application in. I suppose in look- ing over the papers as I do each evening before placing them in the vault I found that this had been slipped into my papers, and I. glancing over it. thought, "This has escaped me. 1 do not see how I have forgotten it, and I had better sign it up.'"
"Have you ever taken an application of a Hindu at any time?" asked Mr. McCrossan.
"No, I have not," said Mr. Fumerfelt. Detective Thompson said he had arrested Rahim. When he had given him notice of it he had said. there was nothing to it, and it would be the best boost ever given to the cause.
"But you did find a great deal of Socialistic litera- ture?" said Mr. McKay.
"It is no crime to be a Socialist," said Mr. Mc- Crossan.
Mr. William Hopkinson, Dominion immigration officer and Hindu interpreter, said that Rahim had come to Vancouver from Honolulu on the S.S. Moana in January, 1910. He had represented him- self as a tourist going through to Montreal and New York, and had been allowed to land. Two months later he saw him again, and he told him that he had completed his trip to Montreal, and was returning, Rahim said he was born in Delhi. India. He spoke three Indian languages. Hindustani, Punjabi, and Gujerati.
Mr. McCrossan said he had no desire to make political capital out of the case, nor, he was sure,
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had his learned friend. His client was simply being tried on a criminal charge, and he contended that there was no evidence that would justify even a committal for trial. All the evidence they had that the accused was a Hindu was the statement that he had been born in India, but hat no more made him a Hindu than being born in England made a man an Englishman.
Mr. McKay promptly produced the interpreta- tion of "Hindu" under the Elections Act. "Any per- son born in India, not of Anglo-Saxon parents."
Mr. McCrossan said that anyhow the charge of perjury must fail, because it had never been proved that his client had been sworn before the commis- sioner. On the other hand they had the direct testi- mony of the commissioner himself that he never had been sworn.
After some further argument, Magistrate Shaw said that he must commit the accused for trial.
THE WHITE MAN'S TITLE DEEDS.
That ancient theory or une equality of mankind receives a rude jolt when people talk of keeping this "a white mans' country." Australia is doing the same. In South Africa, once a black man's coun- try, the new white people are raising the same banner. Where did these white men get their title
deeds?
Today, Mr. Stevens, the member for Vancouver in the Dominion House, warns Eastern Canada against sympathizing with the desire of the Sikhs to bring in their wives and children. He says that no man who supports this request can be elected a pound-keeper in the province of British Columbia. But who gave the whites the title deeds of Alberta and British Columbia, or any other settled or un- settled portion of the earth? The Earl Dudley, late Governor-General of Australia, points out that in Australia four and a half million people control three million square miles of territory, and refuse to admit the people who are not absolutely white. He questions their ability to successfully maintain that position should Great Britain once cease to control India and the peace of the East. Apparently he foresees a time when the white population will be asked to show their title deeds.
If Great Britain finds the Sikhs the most valu- able portion of the Indian army, why shouldn't Canada, Australia, and South Africa bring in a cer- tain number of these big men from the Punjab to help defend the title deeds? They have proved themselves loyal, courageous, exemplary under dis-
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cipline. They would add much to the defensive forces of the different Dominions. There are only two millions of them in the Punjaub, and the sur- plus there will not allow many for each Dominion, but even a few would help. Moreover, it would show that Canada is limiting oriental immigration on moral and national grounds rather than on a mere colour prejudice. It would be at least a par- tial justification of our Christian principles and our interest in foreign missions. The Canadian Courier.
'TIS A DIVINITY THAT SHAPES OUR ENDS ROUGH HEW THEM HOW WE WILL.
Referring to the case of Mrs. Bhag Singh and Mrs. Bawant Singh and their children, who are under orders for deportation, Prof. Teja Singh has written the following letter to a Vancouver paper:
"The calumnies and the direct and indirect lies uttered about the Sikh have for the time being pro- duced the result that the manufacturers of these stories aimed at. But such a success is always ephemeral, as all race prejudice ultimately reacts upon those who are moved by it.
For the experience of India and all other nations has shown that those communities or nations who,
being blinded by some external superiority of color, social, political or economic position, begin ostraciz- ing other peoples as barbarians, savages or unde- sirables, are ultimately overwhelmed by those very races whom they looked down upon.
The ancient Aryans of India when they became so narrow-minded were ultimately conquered by those very people whom they called the Malechhas (the untouchables and the impious); the civilized Romans overrun by the barbarians at whom they sneered; and the Persians by the nomadic Turks whom they styled as rude and illiterate freebooters.
Thus has the divine law, which is slowly and steadily bringing all the races together for enabling them to acquire a real spirit of charity and brother- hood, always broken the pride of those who, blinded by their material power and superficial civilization, have worked against the marching tide of human
atonement.
History is repeating itself on an immensely larger and broader scale, and the Dominion of Canada, the U. S. A. and the Southern Republics of America are destined to be the meeting place of all the races of the world.
The tidal waves of racial union are the part of a great world movement and any artificial barriers
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