Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/217

This page needs to be proofread.

extension never a restriction of existing rights, and as ib was intended only to cover questions arising oub of civil resistance ib left open all the other questions. Henoe the reservation in my letter of the 30&h June, viz :

" As the Minister is aware, some of my countrymen have wished me to go further. They are dissatisfied that tirade licenses, laws of the different Provinces, the Trans- vaal Gold Law, the Transvaal Law 3 of 1885, have not been altered so as to give them full rights of residence, tirade and ownership of land, Some of them are dissatis- fied that full inter-provincial migration is not permitted, and some are dissatisfied that on the marriage question the Belief Bill goes no further than it does,"

In this correspondence there is not a word about the lodian settlers not getting trade licenses or holding fixed property iu the mining or any other area. And the Indians had a perfect right to apply for and get as many trade licenses as they could secure and as much fixed property as they could hold, whether through forming registered companies or through mortgagee. After a strenuous fight for eis>ht years it was not likely that I would give away any legal rights, and if I did, the com- munity, I had fcho honour to represent, would naturally and quite properly have dismissed me as an unworthy, if not a traitorous, representative.

But there is a third letter, totally irrelevant consider- ed as part of the agreement, which has been used for the curtailment of trade rights, Ifc is my letter of the 7th July addressed to Mr. Gorges. The whole tone of it shows that it is purely a personal letter setting forth only my individual views about ' vested righds in connection <with the Gold Law and Townships Amendment Aob.' I

�� �