INDIAN SOLDIERS IN THE TRANSVAAL.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The question raised by your correspondent Mr. A. B. Browne in last week's Spectator is but a restatement of that

put by Lord Ripon in the House of Lords on February 4th last. It is perhaps needless to add that Lord Ripon's remarks were free of any taint of cynicism. The following quotation

is from the Times of February 5th :- " THE MARQuis or RIPON His noble friend (Lord Curzon) would remember, however, that from beginning to end of the Transvaal War it was a principle that natives and persons of another race should-not be allowed to take part, and Asiatics and natives were not allowed to take any part in the active opera- tions of the war.

LORD CURZON: I was responsible for sending from India from ten to twenty thousand men. They acted as Transport Corps, Ambulance Carriers, and in other capacities, and they were under fire on most battlefields of the campaign. (Hear, hear.) THE MARQUIS OF RIPON : They were not active soldiers.

LORD CURZON: Many of them were killed."

To the north of Johannesburg, on an eminence that overlooks the whole city and the east of the Witwatersrand, stands an obelisk erected by public subscription as a memorial to Indians in South Africa. On the east side a marble tablet is let into the monument bearing in English, Urdu, ,and Hindi this inscription:—

" SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF BRITISH OFFICERS, WARRANT OFFICERS, NATIVE N.C.O.'s AND MEN, VETERINARY ASSISTANTS, NALBANDS AND FOLLOWERS OF THE INDIAN ARMY WHO DIED IN SOUTH AFRICA. 1899-1902."

On the other sides are three tablets bearing respectively these words :— "MusuraLszr.

CHRISTIAN—ZOROASTRIAN.

HINDU—SIKH."

The braggadocio that your correspondent sees fit to impute is, moreover, hardly warranted by recent events. It may be that the appeal to which he refers will not, under a British Government, lead to martyrdom, but Mr. Browne may be interested to learn that during the last two years over three hundred and fifty British Indians, claiming lawful domicile in the Transvaal, have submitted to fine, imprisonment, or deportation rather than to the dishOnour they feel would attach to them by comnliance with the requirements of the Registration Law of 1907. Indian soldiers need no apologist.

They would hardly consider• readiness to die on the field a boast ; but that Indian civilians, peaceful, simple merchants,

shopkeepers, hawkers, and clerks, should, in defence of a principle, be willing to suffer the mar•tyr•dom of slow destruction of their businesses, not to speak of bodily discom- fort, should provide material for very serious reflection.—I

am, Sir, &c., L. W. RETCH.

South. Africa British Indian.Committee,

28 Queen Anne's Chambers, Broadway, Westminster, B.W.