Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/200

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110
THE SOUTH AFRICAN INDIAN QUESTION

health, but he wished nevertheless, to use the language of hope, ** He had himself pleaded hard with Mr. Roberts that some place should be found for him; but his health had not permitted and the doctors had been obdurate. He had not resigned from the corps. If in his own motherland he should be restored to strength, and hostilities were still continuing, he intended to come back, directly the summons reached him, (Cheers). As for his work in South Africa, they had been purely a matter of duty and carried no merit with them and his only aspiration on his return to his motherland was to do his duty as he found it day by day. He had been practically an exile for 25 years and his friend and master, Mr. Gokhale, had warned him not to speak of Indian questions as India was a foreign land to him. (Laughter.) But the India of his imagination was an India unrivalled in the world an India where the most spiritual treasures were to be found: and it was his dream and hope that the connection between India and England might be a source of spiritual comfort and uplifting to the whole world.

RECEPTION IN BOMBAY

Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi arrived at Bombay on the 9th January, 1915. They were entertained on arrival at a great public reception over which Sir Pherozeshah Mehta presided. Replying to the toast Mr. Gandhi said in the course of his speech:—

In what he had done, he had done nothing beyond his duty and it remained to be seen how far he had succeeded in doing his duty. That was not a mere lip