Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/203

 bave lost their lives, and therefore finished their work on behalf of your suffering countrymen in South Africa ? What language do you propose to uae for Nagappan and Narayanasawmy, lads of seventeen or eighteen years, who braved in simple faith all the trials, all the Buffer- ings, and all the indignities for the sake of the honour of the Motherland (Cheers.) What language do you propose to uae with reference to Yalliamma, that sweet girl of seventeen yeara who was discharged from Maritzburg prison, akin and bone suffering from fever to which she succumbed after about a month's time (Cries of shame).

It was the Madrasois who of all the Indians were singled oub by the great Divinity that rules over us for this great work. Do you know that in the great city of Johannesburg, the Madrasis look on a Madrassi as die- honoured if be has nob passed through the jails once or twice during this terrible crisis that your countrymen in South Africa wenb through during these eighb long years? You have said that I inspired these great men and women, but I cannot accept) that proposition. It was they, the simple-minded folk, who worked away in faith, never expecting the slightest reward, who inspired me, who kept me to the proper level, and who inspired me by their great sacrifice, by their great faith, by their great) trust in the great) God, to do the work that I was able to do. (Cheers.) Ib is my misfortune that my wife and I have been obliged to work in the lime-light?, and you have magnified out of all proportion (cries of 'No ? no ?') this little work we have been able to do. Believe me, my dear friends, that if you consider, whether in India or in South Africa, it is possible for us, poor mortals the flame individuals, the same stuff of which you are made if you consider thab ib is possible for us to do

�� �