Appendix I. — The Struggle of Passive Resistance
the general public was concerned, the measure was hailed as the first instalment of a scheme designed to drive Indians out of the Colony altogether, and Europeans in the neighbouring Colonies and territories eagerly looked on, as they had looked on, in 1903, at Lord Milner's abortive effort to compel Indian trade and residence in locations, so that they might take advantage of the results of the new policy to relieve themselves to their own Asiatic "incubus."
Appalled by the magnitude of the disaster that threatened the community, the Indian leaders hastened to take steps to avoid it, if possible. They sought an interview with the responsible member of the Government, but succeeded only in getting women excluded from the operation of the measure, and, as a last resort, an Indian mass meeting was held at the moment that the Legislative Council: was debating the clauses of the draft ordinance. Whilst the Council's debate was a perfunctory and prearranged performance, the whole business being concluded in less than a couple of hours, the crowded Empire Theatre rang with impassioned denunciations of the Government's policy, which belied the solemn undertaking of Lord Milner in every important respect, assumed the guilt of the Indian community unheard and without proof, and adumbrated their virtual expulsion from the Colony, and, eventually, from South Africa. So fierce was the
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