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impossible, without legislation on the subject—D. F. News, January 1897.
- It is fortunate for all concerned in Durban’s demonstration against the landing of Indian immigrants that, beyond the effervescent effects of the stump oratory of Dr. MacKenzie, and the inciting diatribes of Mr. Sparks and his neophyte Dan Taylor, nothing very serious has happened to the fair Colony of Natal, its distracted inhabitants, or the much maligned “coolies”. The pseudo-patriotic organizers of an ill-advised demonstration have attempted to play the Roman fool, and have died on their own swords, Luckily, we say, nothing more serious happened; but the folly of those who took upon themselves the hazardous task of calling the people together and suggesting such unconstitutional conduct was never more apparent during the whole time the hubbub lasted, than in the concluding acts of the Durban mob. Unsuccessful in their attempts to prevent the landing of the coolie immigrants, and doubtless humiliated and smarting under the fact that their Demonstration had been somewhat of a fiasco, the mob, in an ill-temper, turned its attention to Mr. Gandhi, an Indian barrister, whose worst crime, in the eyes of Natalians appears to be that he has interested himself in the cause of his fellows, and gratuitously assumed the position of interpreter for the Indians in South Africa. Up to this point the Demonstration had proved quite a harmless one, and might have been likened unto a Christmas pantomime; but, when Mr. Gandhi unostentatiously landed, and was proceeding quietly into town, with Mr. Laughton, an English solicitor, matters took a barbarous turn. We do not presume to take up the cause of the Indian in South Africa, neither do we champion Mr. Gandhi’s arguments, but the treatment to which that gentleman was subjected is scandalous and calls for censure. Mr. Gandhi was surrounded by a jeering crowd of hydrocephalous entities, and was made the vile object of kicks and cuffs, while mud and stale fish were thrown at him. One cad in the crowd struck him with a riding whip, while another plucked off his hat. As a result of the attack, we are told that ‘he was very much bespattered, and blood was flowing from his neck’. Subsequently, under police protection, Mr. Gandhi was conveyed to the store of a Parsee[15], the building was guarded by the borough police, and, ultimately, the Indian barrister made his escape incognito. No doubt, all this proved grand fun for the canaille, but apart from the morals of law and order, the British love of fair play must be rapidly on the wane in Durban, when Englishmen resort to such ungentlemanly behaviour and brutality towards an unconvicted free man. Downing Street and the Indian Government cannot be apathetic towards
