Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/137

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DEPUTATION TO LORD ELGIN 47 =touch the community, the land cannot be transmitted to the heirs. The Ordinance is intended to rectify the error, but as I had the honour to represent the heirs, I ventured to think that even they would not consent to pay for getting this relief at the price, in the nature of the Ordinance for British Indians; and certainly the Indian community can never exchange. for the relief given to the heirs of the land of Aboobaker, an Ordinance of this nature, which requires them to pay so great a price for what is really their own. So that under the Ordinance, in that respect again, there is absolutely no relief. Ag I said before, we shall he under the Ordinance branded as criminals. My Lord, the existing legislation is severe enough. I hold in my hands returns from the Court of the Magis- trate at Volksrust. Over 150 successful prosecutions of Indians attempting to enter the Transvaal have taken place during the years 1905 and 1906. All these prose. cutions, I venture to say, are by no means just. I venture to believe that, if these prosecutions were gone into, you would see that some of them were absolutely grcundless. · So far as the question of identification is concerned, the present laws are quite enough. I produce to Your Lordship the Registration Certificate held by me, and it will show how complete it is to establish identitication. The present law can hardly be called an amendment. I produce before Your Lordship a registration receipt held ·by my colleague, Mr. Ally, from the Transvaal Govern- ment. Your Lordship will see that it is merely a receipt for £3. The registration under the present Ordinance is of a diderent type. When Lord Milner wished tg