Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/146

 QUARANTINE RELIEF FUND SUPPLIED BEDDINGS PROVISIONS ETC. DURING QUARANTINE. GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATING WITH HOME GOVERNMENT TO SECURE ANTI-INDIAN LEGISLATION. PLEASE WATCH.

From a photostat of the office copy: S.N. 1883


 * 20The cable is undated. Vide however the following item.


 * 21Telegraphic address of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress in London


 * 22The Naderi had actually sailed on November 28; vide "Memorial to Secretary of State for the Colonies", 15-3-1897.

Letter to Sir William W. Hunter (29-1-1897)
DURBAN, January 29, 1897

SIR,

I reached Natal on the 18th December but could not land in Durban before the 13th January. The circumstances under which this delay occurred are very painful. The Indian community yesterday sent a very long telegram to you narrating the events of the past 30 days. I venture to give below the circumstances that culminated in a demonstration by about 5,000 Durban men to oppose the landing of passengers on board two ships Courland and Naderi, the first named being owned by Messrs Dada Abdoolla and Co. of Durban and the second by the Persian Steam Navigation Co. (of Bombay).

About the beginning of August last, the Tongaat Sugar Co. applied to the Immigration Trust Board for eleven Indian artisans to be brought under indenture. This gave rise to an organized agitation by the European artisans against the Indians generally. Well-attended meetings of European artisans were held in Durban and Maritzburg and other towns to protest against the introduction of Indian artisans by the Sugar Co. who, yielding to the voice of the artisans, withdrew their application. But the agitation continued. The leaders assumed certain facts and allowed the agitation to develop into one against the Indians wholesale almost without discrimination. Angry correspondence condemning the Indians, mostly under noms de plume, went on. While this was going on, statements appeared in the Press to the effect that the Indians had organized an attempt to flood