Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 2.djvu/196

 be allowed to land, landed promiscuously as soon as the crowd had dispersed.— The Natal Witness, January 1897.


 * Nothing of what Mr. Wylie stated to the Durban meeting, as having been said by Mr. Escombe to the deputation, has even been traversed, much less denied. It stands on record, then, that the Ministry, on the slightest appearance of a riot at Durban, had resolved that mob law should be supreme. “We shall say to the Governor that he will have to take the reins of Government into his own hands.” Everyone is aware that we are rapidly nearing another general election, but no one could possibly have thought that any Ministry would have played so low, to gain votes, as to give the population of a large town freedom to break the law.—The Natal Witness, January 1897.


 * They cannot go on importing indentured Indians by the hundreds and at the same time shut out free Indians; otherwise they will meet with disappointment. —Pretoria Press, January 1897.


 * According to Mr. Wylie’s report of the interview between the promoters of the anti-Indian agitation and Mr. Escombe, the attitude of the Government in the matter appears to be open to grave animadversion. Plainly, though in covert wording, according to Mr. Wylie’s version, the Committee proposed to do what was illegal, and added: “We presume that you, as representing the Government and good authority of this Colony, would have to bring force to oppose us?” To this Mr. Escombe is represented to have replied: “We will do nothing of the sort. We are with you, and we are going to do nothing of the sort to oppose you. But if you put us in such a position we may have to go to the Governor of the Colony and ask him to take over the reins of this Colony, as we can no longer conduct the Government—you will have to find some other persons.” According to this account, the Government have made a confession of most deplorable weakness. A minister, on being informed that a body of people propose doing what is unlawful, should, without a moment’s hesitation, inform his interviewers that the course of law will in no degree be interfered with, and if the occasion calls for it, that minister should say out bluntly that the law, at all costs, will be supported by all available resources. Mr. Escombe, on the other hand, said in effect that the Government would do nothing to oppose the unlawful action proposed. This playing into the hands of men who speak publicly of the Indian Ocean as being the proper place of the Indian immigrants, shows regrettable weakness in a member of the Government in office.—The Times of Natal, January 1897.

The above extracts speak for themselves. Almost every newspaper has condemned the Demonstration, and they further go to show that the Government countenanced the action of the