National demonstration

WE cordially and whole-heartedly associate ourselves with the appeal which has just been issued by Sarojini Naidu, president-elect of the Congress and the president of the South African Indian Congress, for the observance of October 11 as a day of national demonstration against the harsh and high-handed anti-Asiatic legislation of the South African Union Government. Naidu earnestly calls upon all communities in India, irrespective of the differences of colour, creed or political conviction, and especially the European and Indian Christian population, to participate in the national demonstration and to make it a day of solemn intercession offering from every place of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jewish and Zoroastrian worship prayers for the unhappy Indian settlers across the seas. The recent meeting of the All-India Congress Committee at Patna also recorded an important resolution on this subject, by which it called upon all Congress organisations to convene public meetings of all parties on October 11 to protest against the treatment meted out to the Indian settlers in South Africa. Commenting on this resolution, Mahatma Gandhi writes in Young India: “If these meetings are to be a success, all parties, including Chambers of Commerce, European and Anglo-Indian Associations, missionary bodies, etc., should cooperate whole-heartedly, as I hope they will do. There is no division of opinion on this point. And I believe that the Government of India will welcome an emphatic and unanimous expression of public opinion.”