Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/226

 INDENTURED LABOUR

2 he following is a pronouncement made by Mr. Gandhi during the strenuous agitation, made throughout India in the early part of 1917 for the complete abolition of indenture :

There is no doubt bhab we are engaged in a severe struggle for bhe preservation of our honour, and bhab, if we do not bake oare, bhe promise made by Lord H*rdingo, that indentured labour should soon ba a thing of bhe paab may ba reduced fco a nullity. The Viceregal pronounce- ment jusb made fleams ho seb ab rest one fear, bhab bhe system may be prolonged for a further period of five years, which, as Sir Rvnakriahna Bhandarkar showed ab Poona, would, in reality, mean fcea years. We are "hankful fco Lord Chelmaford for his assurance. And we are thankful, too, bo fchab good Englishman, Mr. 0. F. Andrews, for bhe lead bhab he gave ua in bhe mabber. So soon as he gained the information from Fiji that five years' extension was takan by bhe planters of those lands as a sebblad faob, he forsook his siok-bed and his reab ab Sbanbi Nikaban, and souaded for us bhe call of duby,

Bub if one cloud, bhab threatened bo destroy our hopes, seama 60 have disappeared, another eqially dan- gerous loom ^ on the horizja. Tua ooadibioas of aboli- tion, as staged by Lord H irdiug^ laab M iroh, are bhaae:

"Oa behalf of His M*jestVs G^verninent, he (the Secretary of State) has asked us, however, to make it clear that the exist- ing system of recruiting mast be maintained until new oondi- tione, under which labour should be permitted to proceed to the Colonies, should have been worked out in conjunction with the Colonial Office and the Crown Colonies concerned : until pro-

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