The local-born non-Malay communities soon began a campaign for self-rule. In 1936, the Malayan-born Indian community asked High Commissioner Sir Shenton Thomas to grant them a share of administrative appointments. Thomas rejected the request, referring to the local-born Indians as "foreigners". Although the colonial government appeared to view the Chinese as a "transient labor force," with statistics indicating most Chinese migrants eventually returned home, some historians have contended that the local-born Chinese population was steadily growing during the period. Nevertheless, the colonial government insisted it would be dangerous to consider the Chinese as having "a tendency to permanent settlement"; the locally born Indian community — comprising 20% of the Indian population, the rest being manual labourers having migrated for similar reasons as the Chinese at around the same time — was likewise largely ignored.