Page:MKGandhi patriot.djvu/141

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lightly-accoutred Indian to-day feels nothing, owing to enforced circumstances.

One of our prominent citizens, speaking a while since at a meeting of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce, put these views into forcible, if homely, words:—"He believed Mr. Gandhi," he said, "to be a thorough gentleman, cultured, conscientious, and thoroughly educated, and a firm believer in the position he had taken up. But, all the same, he believed Mr. Gandhi to be wrong; but, whether he was right or wrong, the fact remained that this question had become one of self-preservation. If the action of the Government ruined the Empire in one hundred years or so, it would be extremely regrettable. When a people tried to crash others weaker than themselves, it was a sure indication that they would fall. It was so with the Roman Empire, but they in this country had something more to think of to-day. They had to think of their bread-and-butter, and of their children's bread-and-butter." This, perhaps, expresses the thoughts of the majority.

There is a feeling, too, that the white man, who has fought for the country, and has spent blood and treasure to maintain his ascendency, is engaged in buying the foundation of a great Empire, and there