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 CHAPTER XIX

THE OTHER SIDE

That there is another side to the Asiatic Question may be accepted as certain. The opposition is not all injustice, nor is it due, with many, to race-prejudice or greed. There is a profound conviction, with great numbers of thoughtful Colonists, that South Africa should be a "white man's country," and that the free admission of Asiatics would mean a large influx of Easterns who would frustrate that desire. The bugbear of the Colonists is that vast, waiting multitude in India, ever supposed to be pressing against their gate, and ready to flood the country, should resistance cease for a moment.

This fear has been created chiefly by the conditions of Indian trade. Men argue that these strangers can live on such a trifling pittance, their wants are so few, that they are able to undersell the white man and oust him from the market, and that, in fact, in some townships, they have done so. No one can help feeling great sympathy with these fears. British Colonists have burdens to bear, of which the