Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/187

 for hesitating to take drastic steps for the exclusion of Asiatics, when we recollect that, up to this moment, the Government machinery of Natal itself was utilized for the very purpose of importing these Asiatics to suit our own purposes. It may be argued that there is not the same objection to the indentured Indians as to the free Indians, which is quite true; but may it not appear to the Imperial Government, and to the Indian Government, too that distinction is made purely in our own interests, and that it is scarcely fair to encourage immigration of one class of Indians for our own benefit, and to clamour for the rigid exclusion of another class, because we imagine they are likely to do us harm?—The Natal Advertiser, 11th January, 1897.


 * They have a rough and ready diplomacy at Durban. There is none of your concerts of the powers, or diplomatic exchanges. The whole town goes down to the jetty, and announces that if certain of their fellow-subjects exercise their undoubted right to land, their blood will be upon their own head. Individually, they would be glad to buy cheaply from the frugal Indian; but collectively, they distrust themselves and each other. It is a pity that the agitators should have based their objections upon fallacious premises. The real grievance is an economical one based upon experience of which the theory is not generally understood. The soundest and most peaceable way is to form trade protection societies which shall insist upon a minimum price and a maximum wage . . . Durban is not east of Suez, being situated on nearly the same great circle; but the Durbanites seem to enter into the category of those among whom ‘there aint no ten commandments’, to say nothing of the Imperial Statute-book. It is not a method of civilized men to bring about reform by shooting one another in the streets. If the principles of economy are too hard for them, let them at least sail inside the law, which will be found a better friend than rioting, and the ‘thousand armed men’, that one imaginative agitator conjured up. Britain cannot afford to insult the legions of her Indian Empire; nor does she wish to do so, for protection is classed in the Islands in the deadly sense, and free trade comes in somewhere between the first four and the last six clauses of the decalogue. If Durban wishes autonomy, Durban will get it for the asking; but its people cannot expect the British Isles to countenance illegal action, or encourage unconstitutional agitation. —Digger’s News, 12th January, 1897.


 * The Natalians appear now to have lost their heads; and in their hysterical indignation have become desperate and contemplate violence against the much-maligned ‘coolie’. A demonstration has been organized, headed by a local butcher, and the whole town and Colony has taken up the hue and cry. There is something pathetically quixotic about this demonstrative body, each member of which binds himself to proceed to