Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/381

 of the Indians in South Africa and the wise and statesmanlike spirit in which he has dealt with this most painful and difficult question. I will leave the three speakers, who will respectively move, second and support the resolution that will be submitted to this meeting, to express your views on this subject, and also the gratitude which all classes of Indians in Madras feel towards His Excellency for his courageous and timely utterances. But before calling upon them to speak, I should like to say a few words as an Englishman and a Christian, I do not propose to argue all over, again the Indian question in South Africa except to emphasise once more the fact that Indians are not now claiming the free right of entry for the people of India to South Africa or any other part of the British Empire. What they do claim is that the Indians who have been allowed to settle in South Africa and make South Africa their home, the men and women by whose labour and toil Natal has been saved from ruin and made a prosperous colony, should be treated with common justice and humanity. If you have not done so already, I should advise you to procure and read carefully a copy of Mr, Gokhale's speech at Bombay on the 24th October last. It gives the clearest and fullest statement of the history of this struggle and of the Indian demands that I have read anywhere. I have nothing to add to what Mr.