so earnest in its effort to purge the land of these men, when we remember the last report of the Social and Moral Reform League. In this report we are told that vice in British Columbia is protected by the Government, and reform measures opposed bitterly. Yet those who know the Hindus best testify to the fact that there is surprisingly little criminality among them,
"It is said that they will not assimilate. I have watched with wonder and delight the process of assimilation. Given fair conditions and they do adapt themselves rapidly. Their eagerness to learn, to fit into the new order, was to me surprising, as I watched them in California. After knowing such types in India, it was a surprise to watch especially the psychological process of assimilation. few positive results mean much more than acores of negative results. If they are not assimilating, the un-Christian atmosphere in which they live must explain it.
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"Never have I seen such opportunities of helping India as amongst her lonely sons on the Pacific coast. They were eager to learn, respectful and earnest. But times are chang. ing, and the un-Christian attitude of our land is fixing a wide-may it not prove an impassable gulf-between Canada and India,''
That racial prejudice and passion let loose on the coast in the summer of 1914 was altogether overdone is the opinion of com. petent people. They say there is already a reaction, A well-known Canadian in the course of a recent letter to the writer says, ''I am quite free to inform you that in my opinion the treatment of the East Indians in the pro- vince of British Columbia has not been of the best, and the Federal authorities without question in my mind have never understood the situation nor have they tried to under- stand the people themselves. This is to be accounted for from the fact that the officials who were in the various departments of the Government are in my opinion (and I say without any hesitation) incompetent, and also have made no effort to understand the people but have assumed a good many things to be true that are not true, '' How far the incom- petency enters into the case the writer is not prepared to state, but he leaves it for the readers to decide the matter. He lays before the public this opinion for what it is worth.
Another friend from Vancouver writes especially regarding the Komagata Maru: "I feel that the effect of the inhuman treat- ment that was accorded to the Hindus by the Canadian authorities is going to have a far- reaching effect. The Singapore incidents and the other.troubles in India are, I believe, the
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direct outcome of the unfortunate episode. I am of the opinion that the Sikhs came to Vancouver really believing that the doors of Canada were wide open for their entry, after the decision of the Chief Justice in the Narain Singh case....
I blame Mr. H. H. Stevens for all this unfortunate episode. Nothing could exceed the tenacity with which he fought the affair." (Mr. Stevens our readers will remember is the M. P. for Van- couver in the Dominion House of Commons.) I may here state the great ability of the Sikhs in adapting themselves to the condi- tions in Canada which were new to them. How, not knowing the language, they started night schools for learning English. Many have gone back to India and have been zealous in providing education for the boys and girls in the villages by starting schools. In one notable case they have sent more than $15,000.00 and started an excellent high school in the Punjab. The writer knows the case of a young Hindu, eighteen years of age, who by his pluck and industry is supporting him- self and acquiring English in a high school and thus fitting himself for better service. Not only have the Sikhs in Canada helped in starting schools for their children, knowing full well the difficulties they had to conteud with on account of their not having the oppor tunity, but they have also helped in giving to the villagers and stay-at-homes in India, some idea of the great Western world. As a matter of fact the returned emigrants have except in rare instances shown genuine desire for reform and thus served as vehicles for carrying Western civilization to these out of the way and remote villages. Some have taken with them to India agricultural machin- ery and implements and are thus fitting themselves to be better farmers.
In 1908 when there was the financial strin- gency they started a colonization company on a co-operative plan. With that end in view two hundred acres were bought near Van- couver where the Sikhs out of employment could get work, but of late years things have improved and they have had all the work they wanted.
Many of them have bought land and put up houses here. Their holdings, in land, houses, live stock (as many of them have quite a few dairy cattle), horses and wagons. etc., amount to at least two million dollars. I have heard white grocers and others say that they would trust a Sikh and continue doing business with him, as over and over again it has happened that after being in debt for one or two years he will come and pay his debts to the grocer and storekeeper. There are no paupers amongst the Sikhs as
their system of practical self-help insures that those who have been unfortunate in being out of work, or on account of some accident, are duly cared for by the well-to-do members of the community. They have put up considerable sums to help the weaker brethren in divers ways. And this reminds me of the case of nearly ninety Hindus who were held up by the authorities at the port of Seattle, Wash., and ordered to be deported until each of them put up a security of $500 cash. To show the Hindus ' gelf. help their friends in British Columbia with great generosity characteristic of them sup- plied the forthcoming money to the tune of nearly $50,000 and had these men released on bail in the fall of 1913. In addition to this the Sikhs have built temples in Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster and Abbotsford all in B. C. The one at Victoria coat over $10,000.00 These are open to the public.
Here are the opinions of various em- ployers of labor. The Michigan Puget Sound Lumber Co., Ltd., of Victoria say: "'This
is to certify that we have employed a large number of Hindus in our mill for the last few years.
We find them hard working, reliable and steadfast at their work, They have made good in Canada. They are strong workmen and we can strongly recommend them to others requiring steady laborers,"
A farmer who has experience of all kinds of labor in Canada says: "These two men are Sikhs, and there are no better, more con- scientious men on the place. They get along well with other men and are continually racing between themselves to see which can do the more work. Any man good enough to fight for the Empire is good enough to work for me.''
Messrs. Moore & Pethick, Engineers and Contractors, of Victoria, write: We beg to state that we are large employers of Hindu labor in connection with our railroad con- struction, and at present have about one hundred and fifty of them working for us at Union Bay, and some forty to fifty at Osborne Bay. We wish to express our high appreciation of them in our work. They are infinitely superior to ordinary pick and shovel 'white' labor."
The Columbia River Lumber Company, Ltd., of Golden, B. C. state: "This is to certify that for the past two and a half years we have had in our employ in our sawmills and lumber yards about one hundred Sikhs and Ilindus. We are pleased to say that with a very few exceptions those men gave us very good satisfaction. We have found them to he good, steady workers, attentive to their work, quite intelligent and quick to learn,
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and we are pleased to say that the great majority are men of sober habits and good character."
Colonel Davidson of Davidson & Macrae, one of the biggest employers of Hindu labor on the Pacific Coast says that the Sikhs are the most efficient men he has. He has had in his firm sometimes as many as 500 or 600 Sikhs working. Surely he ought to know. When they came they were unskilled; now they are getting responsible positions. Every time the Colonel goes and inspects them he finds their sheds clean and tidy and the Sikhs themselves look far better physically since coming to Canada. Surely if their friends
can
stand the climate in the trenches of France and Flanders, they can stand the climate here. Moreover the people here forget that the Punjab wherefrom the Sikhs come is quite cold in winter. I have seen Sikhs working at Rogers' Pass, B. C., where there is sometimes as much as 26 feet of snow, and feeling none the worse for it.
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Another friend from United States writes: For a number of months I have been visit- ing most of the Hindu camps in Southern California, and I must confess that as class of laborers they have no peer in the labor market. There is only one opinion expressed by the Americans who have en- ployed them, and that is: 'The Hindus are of good workmen-superior to any class laborers that I have ever employed.' I have seen them at their heavy tasks of clearing orange land from rocks and rubbish of every sort, and I can testify that they are most faithful to their employers."
Dr. E. H. Lawson, M.D., says:
There is one phase of the Hindu question concerning which the majority of the public seem to hold most erroneous opinions. I refer to his personal habits regarding cleanliness, use of alcoholic liquors, etc. As ship surgeon on the C. P. E. steamer Monteagle, and later the Tartar at the time of the greatest influx of Hindus, the majority of these people passed under my close observation. It was my duty to make a thorough physical examina- tion of each emigrant at Hong Kong, and although at first I was strongly prejudicel against them I lost this prejudice after thousands of them had passed through my hands and I had compared them with the white steerage passengers I had seen on the Atlantic.
"I refer in particular to the Sikhs and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say that they were 100 per cent. cleaner in their habits and freer from disease than the European steerage passengers I had come in contact with. The Sikhs impressed me as
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