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 to the amended Law of 1886, says in his letter (26th September, 1886, page 46, Green Book No. 1, 1894) : “Although the amended law is still a contravention of the 14th Article of the Convention of London I shall not advise Her Majesty’s Government to offer further opposition to it in view of Your Honour’s opinion that it is necessary for the protection of the public health.” Even the reference to the Arbitrator and the Law 3 of 1885 shows clearly that the departure from the Convention was to be assented to only for sanitary reasons.

12. Your Petitioners hereby enter their most respectful, but emphatic protest against the assumption that there exist sanitary reasons for such a departure; your Petitioners hope to be able to show that no such reasons exist.

13. Your Petitioners append hereto three certificates from doctors which would speak for themselves and which show that their dwellings are in no way inferior to those of the Europeans, from a sanitary point of view (App. A,B,C). Your Petitioners challenge comparison of their own dwellings with those of the Europeans who have theirs in their immediate neighbourhood. For, it so happens in Pretoria that, side by side with some of your Petitioners’ houses and stores, are situated also the houses and stores of Europeans.

14. The following unsolicited testimonial will speak for itself. On the 16th October, 1885, Mr. Mitchell, the then Joint General Manager of the Standard Bank, writes thus to the High Commissioner, Sir H. Robinson:

It may not be deemed out of place if I add that they (the Indian traders) are, within my knowledge, in all respects orderly, industrious and respectable people, and some among them are merchants of wealth and position, having establishments on a large scale in Mauritius, Bombay and elsewhere (Green Book No. 1, p. 37).

15. About 35 European firms of repute distinctly declare that the aforementioned Indian merchants, the majority of whom come from Bombay, keep their business places as well as their residences in a clean and proper sanitary state, in fact, just as good as the European (App. D).