very serious difficulty in his way and that was the report by the two Commissioners, who were sent by Lord Hardinge, namely, Messrs. MacNeill and Chimanlal which are contained in two bulky volumes. All might not care to wade through the rather dull pages of those volumes but to him who knew what real indentured labour was, they were of great interest. They might, however, take upon trust that the reports recognised that indentured labour should continue just as it was, if certain conditions were fulfilled. Those conditions, Mr. Gandhi said, were impossible of fulfilment. And the recommendations which these two great Commissioners made, showed that they really could not seriously have meant that the system of indenture which existed to-day in Fiji, Jamaica, Guiana and other colonies should be continued a minute longer than was actually necessary. The speaker here referred to the previous Commission and said that the defects which Messrs. MacNeill and Chimanlal had pointed out were patent to all. Their report contained nothing new. But there was unofficial investigation on behalf of some philanthropic body in England some forty years ago, and in that book an unvarnished tale was given, which told in graphic language what were the hardships under that system.
In this connection Mr. Gandhi quoted a statement made by the Prime Minister of Natal in which he said that the system of indenture was a most unadvisable thing and that the sooner it was terminated the better for the indentured labourer and the employer. Lord Selborne said the same thing when he was the High Commissioner in South Africa: he said that it was worse for the employer than the employed, because it was a system perilously near to slavery, Sir William Hunter
