DEPUTATION TO LORD ELGIN 49 by the Indian community, and the makers of the charge have been challenged to prove their statement. Toe first statement has also been denied. I ought to mention one thing also; thatis, the fourth resolution that was passed at the British Indian Mass Meeting. It was passed by the meeting solemnly, prayerfully, and in all humility, and the whole of that great meeting decided by that resolutiontnat, if this Ordinance ever came to be enforced and we did not get relief, the British Indians, rather than submit to the great degradation involved in it, would go to gaol, such was the intensity of the feeling aroused by the Ordinance. We have hitherto suffered much in the Transvaal and in other parts of South Africa; but the hardship has been tolerable; we have not considered it necessary to travel 6000 miles to place the position before the Imperial Government. But the straining point has been reached by the Ordinance, and we felt that we should, in all humility, exhaust every resource, even to the extent of sending a deputation to wait on Your Lordship. The least, therefore, that, in my humble opinion, is due to the British Indian community, is to appoint a Commission as suggested in the humble representation submitted to Your Lordship. It is a time-honoured British custom that, whenever an important principle is involved, a Commission is appointed before a step is taken. The question of Allen Immigration into the United Kingdom is a parallel case. Charges somewhat similar to the charges against the Indian community were made against the aliens who enter the United Kingdom. There was also the question of adequacy of the existing legislation, and the necessity for further
