Confession of Mewa Singh. 034
"First put down about my property, and whatever the money is, and Mr. Woods will get that money from me. I have some lots, and I wish them to be given to my brother. I do not wish to employ any barrister to defend me in this case that is going on, that is my whole wish. Will it do me any good to have a lawyer? If it will, then I will have Mr. Woods defend me in this case, and do your best for me. "My name is Mewa Singh. Up until to-day I have always been a man that has always had my prayers, a God-fearing man. There are no words in my language to express the sorrow and troubles and worries I have had to put up with in Vancouver.
**All of us living Sikhs when we go to the Sikh temple it is with the object of saying our prayers, but these others have gone to ruin altogether, and others going into the temple and firing there, destroyed the goodness of the temple, spoilt it by having them shooting and the men being killed there.
"In the temple that day that the shooting was done by Bela Singh, that day the police caught hold of me and tightened me up and said, 'Did you do the shooting, too?' And when they caught hold of Bela Singh, he said, 'Why, I have done the shooting in this temple
and Mr. Hop-
kinson are well aware of it. They know why I have done this shooting.' At the time that Bela Singh did that shoot- ing we were saying prayers that anybody hearing them would have warmed their hearts together and come to God with hearing those words, and Bela Singh first of all shot Bhag Singh, and he had two little children. Seeing that badness done there, the killing of the innocent people had burned into my heart.
"We, as soldier men, have to swear on the Sikh Bible, which is held in great respect, and the Granth Sahib is wrapped up in valuable silks to keep it sacred. It is precious and of great value and we treat it in that respectful way. Before Bela Singh did the shooting in the temple two or three hundred of our Sikhs would go to that temple. Since then they have fallen off and they have no respect for it, and ten men do not go there now.
and Mr.
"All that trouble and all this shooting Hopkinson are responsible for, and I shot Mr. Hopkinson out of honor and principle to my fellow-men and for my religion. I could not bear to see those troubles going on any longer.
"You, as Christians, would you think there was any more good left in your church, if you saw people shot down in it, and you could not put up with it because it would be bringing yourselves to a nation which is dead, to tolerate such conduct, it is better for a Sikh to die than to bring disgrace and ill- treatment in the temple. It is far better to die than to live. I, for my own self, I have always said that I did not want a barrister, and I do not expect any justice. I know I have