THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 29, 1912

p.1.

WILL ARREST HINDU WHO IS ALLEGED
TO HAVE VOTED
-------------------

Warrant Issued This Afternoon for Apprehension
of Houssein Rahim.

-------------------

Charge Is Perjury in Application to Be Placed on
the Voters’ List.

------------------Man Is Alleged to Have Cast Ballot in Ward Four
Yesterday.

-------------------

Alleged to Have Taken Oath Before Commissioner
Flumerfelt, Prominent Liberal.

-------------------

Because he is alleged to have cast a vote in Ward Four polling station
yesterday, Houssein Rahim, a Hindu, is slated for arrest on a charge of perjury.
A warrant for his apprehension was issued early this afternoon and will be
executed, it is declared, just as soon as the police can lay their hands on the
man.
Rahim is well known to the immigration authorities of Vancouver
because of his successful resistance of efforts of the Dominion Government to
deport him. Rahim landed in Vancouver about two years ago, and on several
occasions has defended in the courts attempts on the part of the immigration
officials to ship him out of the country on the ground that he was not legally
entitled to admission.

THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 29, 1912

p.1.

The Provincial Elections Act, specifically declares that no Hindu may
exercise the franchise. Yesterday Rahim is alleged to have acted as a Socialist
scrutineer(Sic) in booth No. 7 Ward Four polling station, and it is further
alleged that he cast a vote in the same polling station.
Sworn Before Flumerfelt.

It developed this morning on investigation of the case that Houssein
Rahim, 139 Pender street east, occupation real estate, is catalogued on the
Vancouver voters’ list as No. 2838, and a duly qualified elector. His
application for registration shows that he took oath before Mr. W. H.(?)
Flumerfelt, a commissioner for the taking of affidavits under the Elections Act,
that he was a duly qualified elector in the Vancouver city electoral district. Mr.
Flumerfelt is a well-known worker in the Liberal party. It is alleged that
following Mr. Flumerfelt’s acceptance of Rahim’s declaration his name was
placed on the voters’ list last September, prior to the Dominion election.
Was Bowser’s Amendment.
The charge of perjury contained in the warrant issued for Rahim’s arrest
is declared to be based on the fact that in his application for registration he
allegedly swore before Commissioner Flumerfelt in paragraph 4: “That I am in
good faith a qualified elector in said electoral district.”
It is worthy of not in connection with the case of Rahim that it was Hon.
W. J. Bowser who brought before the Legislature and caused to be passed, the
amendment which specifically shut out Hindus from exercise of the franchise
in British Columbia. The attorney-general took this action shortly after the
invasion of Hindus commenced some years ago. He realized the peril of
allowing the franchise to Hindus, Chinese, Japanese or other Asiatics, and the
amendment became law. The stature was subsequently declared to be intra
vires of the powers of the Legislature on a test case carried to the highest
courts.
Will Strike Name From List.

THE DAILY PROVINCE
MARCH 29, 1912

p.1.

“I shall certainly see that the name of this man is struck from the voters’
list forthwith,” declared Hon. Mr. Bowser this morning, when the alleged
voting of Rahim yesterday was called to his attention. “Yes, I have heard that
in a Liberal morning newspaper it was declared that the man had been acting
for the Conservatives. That is only what is to be expected from that source. As
a matter of fact the man, so I am informed, acted as a Socialist scrutineer(Sic).
(Illegible word)…astounded that such a mistake as the placing of the
name of a Hindu on the list could have been made at the office of the registrar
of the city list is a very large one and I presume the man’s application slipped
through accidentally.

“As soon as the matter was reported to me last night I put the case in the
hands of Crown Prosecutor McKay, instructing him to lose no time in
investigating and acting if he determined that a prosecution would lie under
the circumstances. Mr. McKay is at this moment searching at the office of the
registrar of voters for the original application form on which Rahim swore
that he was qualified as an elector in the Vancouver City Electoral district.”