Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/194

 Committee, providing for the carrying out of the alternative plan mentioned in Mr. Saunders's letter, while the proposal for the specific disqualification of aliens has not been considered advisable of adoption.}}

Your Lordship's Memorialists would beg to draw Your Lordship's attention to the same learned gentleman's report at page 91 of the same Blue-book. The temptation to quote again from another report by the same learned Attorney-General is irresistible. At page 14 (ibid.) he says:


 * As regards the proposal to exclude from the exercise of the Franchise all persons of every nationality or race which is not in every respect under the common law of the Colony, this is a provision evidently aimed at the electoral rights at present enjoyed by the Indian and Creole population of this Colony. As I have already stated in my report on Bill No. 12, I cannot recognize the justice or expediency of such a measure.

27. Thus is happens that, under a freer constitution in the Colony, that should include Your Lordship's Petitioners also, the First Responsible Ministry, your Petitioners regret to say, have attempted to make your Petitioners less free, to disenfranchise them wholesale. In the face of the fact that, under the old regime, a far less bold attempt to restrict the rights of your Petitioners did not receive countenance from the Home Government, your Petitioners have every hope that the present attempt will meet with the same fate, and justice done to Your Lordship's Petitioners.

28. The other pernicious consequences indirectly connected with the Franchise Bill are too numerous to mention; your Petitioners would, however, crave leave to discuss a few.

29. It is a known fact that there is, in the Colony, a wide gulf between the European section of the community and the Indian. The Indian is hated and shunned by the European. He is often needlessly vexed and harassed. The Franchise Bill, your Petitioners submit, will only accentuate such a feeling. The signs have already begun to appear. To verify this, your Petitioners commend the newspapers of the current dates to Your Lordship's attention, and also the debates in both the Honourable Houses.

30. It was said, in the course of the debate on the second reading, that the disqualification put upon the Indians would put a greater responsibility upon the legislators of the Colony and that the Indian interests would be better protected than if they were represented. This, Your Lordship's Petitioners beg to submit, is contrary to all experience up to the present time.