Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/193

 by the Honourable Members in both the Houses, and the Honourable the Treasurer went so far as to say that special cases of hardship may in future be dealt with by the Parliament.

26. To illustrate the above argument more fully, your Petitioners would draw Your Lordship's attention to the papers and Government Gazettes in connection with the Indian vote question that was raised and discussed in the late Honourable the Legislative Council of Natal. From a Blue-book containing the correspondence relating to the affairs of Natal (C-3796, 1883), your Petitioners take the following from Mr. Saunders's letter to the Colonial Office (page 3) :


 * The mere definition that these signatures must be in full, and in the elector's own handwriting, and written in European characters, would go a long way to check the extreme risk of the Asiatic mind swamping the English.

Thus Mr. Saunders, zealous advocate as he was of anti-Asiatic policy, could not go further than this. In the same letter, the honourable gentleman says further:


 * The better-class Indians feel and see there is a difference between the raw coolie and themselves.

Therefore, it seems that the Government of the day was quite willing to distinguish between Indians and Indians. Now, unfortunately, under free institutions, all Indians, indentured, and freed, and free, are attempted to be put in the same scale. Your Petitioners cannot help respectfully expressing that Mr. Saunder's measure was comparatively very mild compared to the Bill under discussion. But that measure, too, did not receive support from Her Majesty's benign Government; much less, therefore, your Petitioners submit, should the Franchise Law Amendment Bill. In the same book above referred to, the then Protector of Immigrants, Mr. Graves, says, at page 7 :


 * I am of the opinion that only those Indians who have abandoned all claim for themselves and their families for a free return passage to India are justly entitled to the Franchise.

He very justly pointed out also, that the signature test suggested by Mr. Saunders was not applied in practice to the European electors.

At the same page, the then Attorney-General says in his report :
 * {{smaller|It will be noticed that the measure drafted by me contains certain clauses which have been adopted from the recommendations of the Select