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INTRODUCTION
vii

privileges; they are merely trying to regain that which has been taken from them—the honour of their community. Let him who blames them say what he would do in similar circumstances. Is there one of us who, out of respect for the law, would submit meekly and without protest to deprivation of rights and social degradation?

The Colonial Government can remove both grievances without sacrificing an ounce of principle or losing a grain of dignity. Will the Colonial Government do so for the sake of the Empire at this moment of reconciliation, union, and new hope for the future? That is the question to which we are anxiously expecting an answer at the present moment—the question whether or not the Indians who, have their homes in the Transvaal and who have assisted as a community in the development of South Africa, who are British citizens and subjects of His Majesty the King, are to have any lot or share in the general rejoicing over the Union of South Africa.

The Colonial Government has but to repeal an Act, which has served its purpose, which is now useless and unworkable, and which they themselves declare to be a dead letter, and to make a slight amendment of another Act, so as to remove the