Lord Reading’s opportunity

THE 11th of October has come and gone. The whole of patriotic and politically self-conscious India has with one voice condemned the unjust, iniquitous and humiliating treatment accorded by the Government of South Africa to our countrymen residing in that part of the British Empire, and in particular the Asiatic Bill which threatens their very existence. The demonstration has taken two forms. From every place of religious worship, Hindu, Muslim and Christian, there have gone forth prayers to the throne of the most high both to give strength to our countrymen and countrywomen to battle manfully against the threatened national wrong and to change the hearts of the South African Government and the British Government, so that they may realise their duty and do it. And side by side, public meetings have been held, mostly under the auspices of Congress organisations, at all recognised and important centres of political activity, recording the country’s indignant protest against the action of the South African Government and the criminal indifference of the Imperial Government. This two-fold demonstration, in which patriotic and self-respecting Indians of all communities and all political parties have freely and wholeheartedly joined, affords a splendid opportunity to Lord Reading and his government to justify the claim they have so often put forward of being as good as a national government. If they know their duty and their business, they will not hesitate one moment to place themselves at the head of this great national demonstration, as any national government would have done in similar circumstances.