Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/330

 the Indians undertook to suspend Passive Resistance, whilst the Government promised to introduce satisfactory legislation in the 1912 session of Parliament, meanwhile administering the law as though it had already been altered, and specially exempting, in terms of an earlier understanding, a limited number of educated entrants into the Transvaal.

Taking advantage of the lull, and of the better feeling aroused at the time of the King's Coronation in India, a further mission was sent there, in order to maintain public interest and to place before the Government the points upon which the Indian community insisted. The measure of 1912, however, met with no better fate than its predecessor, and the provisional agreement was extended for another year. It was then that preparations were made throughout South Africa to welcome the Hon. Mr. Gokhale, whose tour in the sub-continent is still fresh in the minds of all. He succeeded, as no one else had yet done in raising the discussion of the Indian problem to the Imperial plane, and won the admiration even of his opponents of his moderation and statssmanship. It was during this visit that Indians later alleged, on his authority, that a promise of repeal of the iniquitous £3 tax was made by the Government in view of the fact that, for over a year, further indentured immigration from India had been prohibited by the Indian Government.