M. K. Gandhi
Indians, who entered the Union otherwise than under indenture, has been satisfactorily laid down.
We are at the present moment in communication with the Secretary of State regarding other restrictions contained in the Act to which we take exception and we trust that our representations may not be without result.
You have urged in your address that retaliatory measures should be taken by the Government of India but you have not attempted to state the particular measures which in your opinion should be adopted As you are aware we forbade indentured emigration to Natal in 1911: and the fact that the Natal planters sent a delegate over to India, to beg for a reconsideration of that measure shows how hardly it hit them. But I am afraid it has had but little effect upon South Africa as a whole, and it is unfortunately not easy to find means by which India can make her indignation seriously felt by those who hold the reins of Government in that country.
Recently, your compatriats in South Africa have taken matters into their own hands by organising, what is called passive resistance to laws which they consider invidious and unjust—an opinion which we who watch their struggles from afar cannot but share.
They have violated as they intended to violate, those laws, with full knowledge of the penalties in-
250
