Committee. Your Memorialists may here remark that the leaders of the Demonstration have since denied that there was any “collusion” between the Government and themselves. Nevertheless, the fact remains, and it is patent from the above extracts, that had the Government contradicted the statement made by Mr. Wylie as to the conversation between Mr. Escombe and himself, and publicly declared that the passengers were not only entitled to the protection of the Government, but that it would be given to them, the Demonstration would never have taken place. As the Government organ itself has said, the Government “had the movement under their aegis and control” while it was developing. Indeed, it seems from that article that they were rather anxious that such a Demonstration should take place, if only the crowd could be managed properly and kept under sway, so that it may serve as an object-lesson to the passengers. To say the least, such a method of intimidation being sanctioned or countenanced by a Government in a British Colony is, with the greatest deference to the Natal Government, a new experience, opposed to the most cherished principles of the British Constitution. The after effects of the Demonstration, in your Memorialists’ humble opinion, cannot but be disastrous to the welfare as well of the whole Colony as of the Indian community, who claim to be as much a part of the British Empire as the European British subjects. It has already intensified the estranged feelings between the two communities. It has lowered the status of the Indians. All this, your Memorialists humbly submit and hope, cannot and will not be viewed with unconcern by Her Majesty’s Government. If those who are responsible for the upkeep of the harmony of the British Empire and justice between the various sections of the subjects assist in creating or encouraging division and ill feeling between them, the task of persuading those sessions to keep in harmony, in face of conflict of diverse interests, must be ever so much more difficult. And if Her Majesty’s Government grant the principle that the Indian British subjects are to have freedom of intercourse with all Her Majesty’s Dominions, then, your Memorialists venture to trust that there will be some pronouncement from the Imperial Government that would preclude the possibility of such deplorable partiality on the part of Colonial Governments.
The following remarks by The Natal Advertiser of January 16, about the behaviour of the Indian community during the crisis are worthy of record:
