Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/241

151 for the protection of those who had plural wives before the settlement, especially if the latter had at any time entered South Africa. It may be the proper thing in a predominantly Christian country to confine the legality to only one wife. But it is necessary even for that country, in the interests of humanity and for the sake of friendship for members of the same Imperial Federation to which they belong administratively, to allow the admission of plural wives and their progeny.

The above agreement still evades the question of inequality of status in other matters:—Thus the difficulty of obtaining licenses throughout South Africa, the prohibition to hold landed property in the Transvaal and the Free State and virtual prohibition within the Union itself of the entry of Indians into the Free State, the prohibition of Indian children to enter the ordinary Government schools, deprivation of Municipal franchise in the Transvaal and the Free State and practical deprivation of the Union franchise throughout South Africa, barring perhaps the Cape. The resolutions of the Imperial Conference therefore are decidely an eye-wash. There is no change of heart in the colonies and certainly no recognition of Imperial obligations regarding India. The Fijian atrocities to which Mr. Andrews has drawn pointed attention show what is possible even in the Crown Colonies which are under direct Imperial control.