DEPUTATION TO LORD BBLBORNB 5 This was tantamount to the denial of the right ol British Indian refugees to enter the country. It would be bard to Bod twenty Indians who would be known to respect- able Europeans by name as well as appearance. The British Indian Association had to correspond with the Government, and, in the meantime, the issue of permits was suspended, and it has been only lately realised that the insisting upon European reference was a serious [injustice. THE ENTRY OF CHILDREN But still the dilhculties apart from the necessity for European references are there. Male children under sixteen years of age are now called upon to take out per- mits before they can enter the Colony, so that it has been not an uncommon experience for little children of ten years of age and under to be torn away from their parents at the border towns. Why such a rule has been imposed we fail to understand. The High Commissioner: Have you ever known a case where the parents have stated beforehand that they have children and which children have been refused per- ·missiou to come in ? Mr. Gandhi: Yes; and the parents have been obliged to make affidavits before the children have been allowed to come in. If the parents have the right to enter, so far as I am aware, every civilised country has admitted the right of minor children also to enter with them, and, in any case, children under sixteen years, if they cannot prove their parents are dead, or that their parents have been cresident in the Transvaal, before the war, are not al-·
