Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/255



43. If it is true that your Petitioners' sanitary habits are not such as to endanger the health of the European community, and if it be true also that the agitation against them is due to trade jealousy, your Petitioners submit that the Award of the Chief Justice of the Orange Free State cannot be binding, even though it be in strict accordance with the terms of the reference. For, the very reason which induced Her Majesty's Government to assent to a departure from the Convention does not then exist.

44. If, however, Your Excellency is disposed to doubt the statements made herein, as regards your Petitioners' sanitary habits, your Petitioners humbly urge that, in view of the fact that very large interests are at stake, and that there are conflicting statements with regard to your Petitioners' sanitary habits, and that the feeling is very high against the Indians in South Africa, before any departure from the Convention is finally assented to, some impartial inquiry should be made as to the truth of the conflicting statements, and that the whole question of the status of the Indian in South Africa should be sifted.

In conclusion, your Petitioners leave their case in Your Excellency's hands, earnestly praying and fully hoping that your Petitioners will not be allowed to become a prey to the colour prejudice, and that Her Majesty's Government will not consent to a treatment of the Indians in the South African Republic which would place them in a degraded and unnatural position and deprive them of the means of earning an honest livelihood.

And for this act of justice and mercy, your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall for ever pray, etc.


 * APPENDIX A

PRETORIA, Z.A.R. April 27, 1895

I hereby certify that I have practised as a general medical practitioner in the town of Pretoria for the last five years.