Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/278



18. Your Memorialists submit that the arrangement has not appealed to any fair-minded men at all. How the Indian Government could be persuaded by the Natal Delegates to make a promise to sanction an indefinite extension of the indentures, or compulsory return, no matter how reluctantly, your Memorialists do not profess to know. But your Memorialists venture to hope that the case, as put here, on behalf of the indentured Indians will receive full attention from both Her Majesty's Government and the Indian Government, and that any sanction given on the representation of an ex parte Commission will not be allowed to prejudice the case of the indentured Indians.

19. For the sake of ready reference your Memorialists beg leave to quote as follows from His Excellency the Viceroy's despatch to His Excellency the Governor of Natal, dated the 17th September, 1894:


 * I should myself have preferred the continuance of the existing system under which it is open to an immigrant at the termination of his period of indenture to settle in the Colony on his own account, and I have little sympathy with the views that would prevent any subjects of the Crown from settling in any Colony under the British flag. But, in consideration of the feelings at present manifested in the Colony of Natal towards Indian settlers, I am prepared to accept the proposals (a to f) set forth by the Delegates in the memorandum of 20th January, 1894, referred to in the preceding paragraph, subject to the following provisions, viz.:


 * (a) That a Coolie when first recruited shall be required by the terms of his contract to return to India, within or immediately on the expiration of the period of his indenture, unless he may prefer to re-enter into a further indenture on the same conditions;


 * (b) that such Coolies as may refuse to return should in no case be made subject to penalties under criminal law, and


 * (c) That all renewals shall be for a period of two years, and that a free passage should be secured to the immigrant at the end of the first term for which his engagement is made as well as at the end of every subsequent renewal.


 * The alterations in the existing system which I am prepared to sanction with the approval of Her Majesty's Government may be summarized as follows.

20. Your Memorialists notice with a feeling of relief that Her Majesty's Government have not yet approved of the suggestions of the Delegates.