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Gurdit Singh, 'You go to the court and tell the truth. Mewa Singh will say whatever we want him to, because we have the power over him.' Then Baboo Singh started using abusive language to Bhag Singh, the man who was dead. He said, 'We have killed him,' and he abused his little girl. Then Gurdit Singh told Baboo Singh, 'Do not abuse Bhag Singh. Do not abuse the dead man.' Baboo Singh said, 'Yes, I will.”
"Those two men abused themselves each other. They both used bad language. Then Baboo Singh hit Gurdit Singh in the face. When I saw them fighting I divided them and said, 'Brothers, do not fight,' and I told Gurdit Singh to go home. When Baboo Singh hit Gurdit Singh he hit him with a stick on the head. Then they went away after the fight was over and Baboo Sing came near me and threatened me there and said, 'If you do not give evidence on our side you will have to be fixed.' At that time Seren Singh was there too. Baboo Singh kept on swearing at me and using bad language to me, but I never said anything back to him. Again Baboo Singh said, 'We are all-powerful in Vancouver. can do what we like with you. I alone have the immigration department behind me. I can fix you. You can do nothing. I am all-powerful. I have you all fixed.
We
"After leaving Baboo Singh I began to take all this to heart and began to think it cannot go on. This went deep into my heart. Then when I went to the police court I gave true evidence. Then I walked about Vancouver kind of frightened after giving the evidence. Then again Iwas alone and met Baboo Singh. He asked me, "Brother, where are you going?' Baboo Singh said, 'Wht work do you do?' I said, 'I live away and do some work,' and Baboo Singh said, 'If you walk about Vancouver we will kill you, but I will show you you cannot, we will kill you.' I took all this deeply to heart. I thought I must do something. I then thought it would be better to die. I will die like a man straight. These people have disgraced us. They think we are nothing. Sikhs are nothing. There is nothing of us left. We are walked on. There is no judge listens to us. These four men are all-powerful. No one can do anything here except Bela Singh, Baboo Singh,
and Mr. Hopkinson. That is why I have killed Mr. Hopkinson and
Ihave sacrificed my own life.
"Hopkinson was a deceiver, both to the Government on one side and to us Sikhs on the other, and was a blood- sucker. He catches hold of two or three on one side and uses them as the tools in front of the Government. Anyone that could pay Hopkinson properly he would manage to get them off. He would do the Government over, bring new men right in here and say those are old men that have been here before. He used to take $100 from each of the new men. He used to take from both the Government side and from our side. The Government listened to Hopkinson and never paid any attention to us. We are poor, only coolie men, and whatever Hopkinson said was law. The Govern ment listened to him completely.
"Everyone knows that Hopkinson did these underhand things and it must be brought to light. The European public must be aware of the fact that Hopkinson draws money from us poor native men. In the Vancouver public there are a few that are Christian men who have received us with the proper spirit. The other have treated us like dogs. For two months I have gone with Bela Singh and saw Mr. Hopkinson doing all these underhand things, taking money, etc.
"After going with Bela Singh then my eyes were opened. I could not believe that Hopkinson used to do these things, but now I know it is a fact. I have never, and no one in the world, has known what underhand bad dealings have gone on in Vancouver, and without anyone's help or sugges- tion from anyone I have killed Mr. Hopkinson.
"Any meetings that we have ever had in the Sikh temple were in the bottom storey, and there where we always talked about not having been allowed to have our wives here, but that was never talked of in the top storey, where the shoot- ing was done. That shooting disgraced the temple. Mr. Hop- kinson has brought us all these cases and troubles, and has taken the money to the Government and has left us almost without bread and all this has been through Mr. Hopkinson. "After seeing all this I shot Mr. Hopkinson. It is to show the Vancouver public the truth of this matter and of our sufferings and
Bela Singh, and Baboo Singh. "There is no use the Vancouver public listening to and Baboo Singh any longer. If they listen to them there can be no justice done to us, and in the cause of justice I wish this exposed and the Sikhs helped. If they listen to Baboo Singh and
the trouble will go on. That is why I have taken Mr. Hopkinson's life and am going to give my own, and the trouble will never end while the Gov- ernment and police listen to those tales from
and Baboo Singh. And this is my wish that I, Mewa Singh, wish this thing cleared up.
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"I would like four Christian clergymen to talk to me and I will show them from my Holy Book that the aetion I have taken to right this great wrong is in that book, because I am a God-fearing man, and it is with this view I have taken the right action, and I would like to talk to four Christian clergymen, and I will read to them out of the *Granth Sahib and show them how it is the wrong has been done. I must get rid of a sinner that does wicked things like that, to save the rest of the community from trouble. That is why the deed has been done.
"I have always read three sentences in the morning from the Granth Sahib and two in the evening, not ever to tell a lie, and it was for the Granth Sahib I did this. I could not bear to see the wrong done.
"That is why Ihave lost myself to save this wrong. I am a lonely man; I have no wife. I have not got the immi- gration department behind me, nor the committee behind me, and I have sacrificed myself for this good cause.
"October, 1914.’’
*Granth Sahib (The Sikh Bible).
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