Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/182

 returned, and less than 100 were newcomers, including about 40 ladies, being wives and relations of the Indian residents of Natal; and the remaining 60 were either storekeepers, their assistants, or hawkers. There was not a single blacksmith or compositor on board, neither was there a printing plant. Mr. Gandhi publicly denied, through the interviewer of The Natal Advertiser, that he ever instigated anybody on board to bring an action against the Government for illegal quarantine; and this denial has not been contradicted. Moreover, it is easy to see how the rumour arose. As would appear from what has preceded, the owners and the agents threatened some action against the Government for what they considered to be illegal quarantine and detention. Rumour ascribed such an action to the passengers and The Natal Mercury erroneously inferred that Mr. Gandhi must have had a hand in the matter. He has, moreover, denied through the same channel that there is any organization led by him to swamp the Colony with Indians. And your Memorialists may here assure Her Majesty’s Government that no such organization exists under Gandhi, who was a passenger on the Courland. That he was a passenger by that ship was mere accident. Your Memorialists telegraphed for him on November 13th, and he booked his passage in the Courland, she being the earliest convenient boat for Natal after that date. These denials are easy of verification at any time, and if they are true, then, your Memorialists submit, it behaves the Government of Natal to allay popular feeling by publishing their opinion.

Some of the incidents of the quarantine are worthy of record, as showing that the quarantine was more a political move against the Indians than a safeguard against the introduction of the bubonic plague into the Colony. It was first imposed to complete 23 days from the day of departure of the ships from Bombay. The Committee’s report above alluded to (App. Q) advised 12 days’ quarantine after disinfection and fumigation. No steps were taken to disinfect and fumigate till after the expiry of 11 days after the arrival of the ships at Durban. In the mean while, the signals of distress for water and food were tardily attended to, doctors were said to have been privately interviewed by the Hon. the Attorney-General, and asked to give their opinion regarding the period of quarantine (App. P); passengers’ clothing and beds were burnt, and, though they were to remain