14 THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION
This does not complete the list of grievances in Natal. I must beg to refer the curious to the Green Pamphlet for further information.
But, gentlemen, you have been told lately by the Natal Agent-General that the Indians are nowhere better treated than in Natal ; that the fac that a majority of the indentured labourers do not avail themselves of the return passage is the best answer to my pamphlet, and that the railway and tram-car officials do not treat the Indians as beasts nor do the Law Courts deny them justice.
With the greatest deference to the Agent-General, all I can say as to the first statement is that he must have very queer notions of good treatment, if to be looked up for being out after 9 P.M. without a pass, to be denied the most elementary right of citizenship in a free country, to be denied a higher status than that of bondman and at best a free labourer and to be subjected to other restrictions referred to above, are instances of good treatment. And if such treatment is the best the Indians receive throughout the world, then the lot of the Indians in other parts of the world and here must be very miserable indeed, according to the commonsense view. Tae thing is that Mr. Walter Peace, the Agent-Ganeral, is made to look through the official spectacles and to him everything official is bound to appear rosy. The legal disabilities are condemnatory of the action of the Natal Government and how can the Agent-General be expected to condemn himself ? If he or the Government which he represents only admitted that the legal disabilities mentioned above were against the fundamental principles of the British Constitution, I should not stand before you this evening. I respectfully submit that statements of opinions made
