104 THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION and we should have laid ourselves open to the charge of making new demands. But I have also assured them that the present set- tlement does not preclude them from agitation (as has been made clear in my letter to the Secretary of the Interior of the 16th ultimo) for the removal of other disabilities which the community will still suffer from under the Gold Law, the Townships Act, the Law 3 of 1885 of the Transvaal and the Trade Licences Laws of Natal and the Cape. Tue promise made by General Smuts to administer the existing law justly and with due regard to vested rights gives the community breathing time, but these laws are in themselves defective, and can be, as they have been, turned into engines of oppression and instruments by indirect means to drive the resident Indian population from Svuth Africa- The concession to popular prejudice in that we have reconciled ourselves to the almost total prohibition by administrative methods of a fresh influx of Indian immigrants, and to the depriva· tion of all political power, is» in my opinion, the utmost that could be reasonably expected from us. These two things being assured, I venture to submit that we are entitled to full rights of trade, inter- provincial migration, and ownership of landed property being restored in the not distant future. I leave South Africa in the hope that the healthy tone that pervades the European community in South Africa to·day will continue, and that it will enable Europeans to recognise the inherent justice of our submission, To my countrymen I have at various meet- ings that I have addressed during the past fortnight attended in several cases by thousands, said, "Nurse the settlement ; see to it that the promises made are being carried out Attend to development and progress from
