there, and repeated his assertion, that he alone should be consulted by the Indians. No effort was made by him to understand the position of affairs. "I do not wish to see you, nor to discuss these matters with you," he said.
Subsequently, at every turn, the same spirit was shown. In Natal, the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, who was then visiting South Africa, had received a deputation of Indians introduced by their leader. Mr. Gandhi's recall from India had, in fact, been partly in view of this function. In Pretoria, he was officially excluded from a similar deputation. When the Municipal Council of Johannesburg desired to see the principal Indians, with regard to a new location or "bazaar," Mr. Gandhi's name was again struck off the list proposed by his people. In this case, however, the Indians absolutely refused to send any deputation in which their chief adviser was not included, and their decision was respected. Still, the uneasy conviction was awakened in the Indian mind, that the Government officials had resolved to fight remorselessly with Mr. Gandhi, and, if possible, eliminate his influence from Asiatic politics in the Transvaal. This was, in the view of the Indian community, a natural course for officialdom to take.
