Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/252

 inconvenience and loss of the White people who employ their labour, not even to speak of the hardship to themselves. . ..

30. At the last page of the same book, in his Despatch dated the 21st March, 1894, the High Commissioner says as follows:


 * . . . Her Majesty’s Government assume that the Arbitration will apply to any Aboriginal of Asia who may be a British subject.

31. If, in terms of that Despatch, the Arbitration is to apply to the Aboriginals of Asia, the question is, are there any Asiatic Aboriginals at all in the Transvaal, unless all the Asiatics are to be treated as such ipso facto—a contention, your Petitioners are confident, will not be held out for one moment. Your Petitioners, therefore, will not certainly rank as Aboriginals.

32. If the whole objection to the Indian proceeds from sanitary grounds, the following restrictions are entirely unintelligible:


 * 1. The Indians, like the Kaffirs, cannot become owners of fixed property.
 * 2. The Indians must be registered, the fee being £3-10s.
 * 3. In passing through the Republic, like the Natives, they must be able to produce passes unless they have the registration ticket.
 * 4. They cannot travel first or second class on the railways. They are huddled together in the same compartment with the Natives.

33. The sting of all these insults and indignities becomes more galling when it is borne in mind that many of your Petitioners are large holders of property in Delagoa Bay. There they are so much respected that they cannot take out a third-class railway ticket. They are gladly received by the Europeans there. They are not required to have passes. Why, your Petitioners humbly ask, should they be differently treated in the Transvaal? Do their sanitary habits become filthy as soon as they enter the Transvaal territory? It often happens that the same Indian is differently treated by the same European in Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal.

34. To show how harassing the pass law is, your Petitioners have appended hereto an affidavit from Mr. Haji Mahomed Haji Dada, which will speak for itself (App. G). Who Mr. Haji Mahomed is, will be gathered from the copy of a letter attached to the affidavit (App. H). He is one of the foremost Indians in South Africa. Your Petitioners have attached the affidavit by way of illustration only, and to show how hard must be the lot of the other Indians, when a foremost Indian cannot travel without suffering