Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/147

 the Colony with free Indians. About this time appeared also Reuter’s telegram regarding my pamphlet which enraged the Colonists. The telegram said that I had stated that Indians were robbed, assaulted, etc. When, however, the papers received copies of the pamphlet, they acknowledged that I had stated nothing that was not stated in Natal before and that was not acknowledged to be correct. But the general populace, who formed their opinion of the pamphlet from Reuter’s summary, continued to retain their bitter feelings. Then came the wires regarding the Bombay and Madras meetings. These, while not inaccurate, were read together with Reuter’s summary and made the feelings more bitter.

In the mean while, steamers continued to bring a large number of Indians. The arrivals were prominently reported and exaggerated. The almost equal returns by the same steamers passed unnoticed. And the artisans were led to believe without any ground that these steamers brought mostly Indian artisans. This gave rise to the formation of anti-Indian associations at whose meetings resolutions were passed asking the Natal Government to stop the influx of free Indians, to prevent Indians from owning landed property, etc. These associations are not much countenanced by the commercial people but are composed chiefly of artisans and a few professional men.

At the time this was going on, two ships Courland and Naderi, bound for Natal and containing Indian passengers, were reported to be on the water. I was a passenger on board the Courland. I was to have gone by one of the British Indian boats, but the telegram from Durban, asking me to return at once, necessitated my taking passage by the Courland. As soon as the news became public property, the papers and the Durban Town Council urged that Bombay should be declared an infected port. The steamers reached Natal on the 18th and were placed under quarantine for 23 days from the day of leaving Bombay. Proclamation declaring Bombay an infected port was dated the 18th December and published in a Gazette Extraordinary on the 19th, that is, one day after the steamers’ arrival. The medical officer, who imposed five day, quarantine, making 23 days from the time of departure of the steamers from Bombay, was dismissed and another appointed in his stead. He boarded the steamers after the expiry of the first quarantine and imposed 12 days’ quarantine