A.—6

56

then, like you, I Bhall be jealous of any outside authority imposing its will upon me in my affairs. It is for that reason that I am anxious that the Dominions themselves should take the initiative in regarel, to this committee which I have suggested, anel to the committee which we propose to send out from India to confer with you in your countries. 1 think, and I honestly believe, if the problem is explored on those lines it will be found that it does not in the end prove to be insoluble. South Africa. Address to General Smuts. I now turn perhaps to the most difficult part of my work, and that is my address to General Smuts. I frankly recognize that I cannot address him on the basis of the; resolution of 1921. He; was no party to it. But I address him on three specific grounds : first of all, as a humanitarian ; secondly, as an Imperial statesman ; thirdly, as the Prime Minister of South Africa. As a Humanitarian. As a humanitarian I say he cannot absolve himself of the moral duty which rests on his shoulders of elevating the status of my countrymen within his Dominion. Let it be granted that their standard is low j it makes his task all the more imperative and urgent that he should help them in raising that standard. My countrymen, and I wish to say it emphatically, are as much strangers in South Africa as Englishmen or as Genera] Smuts. The assistance of my countrymen, like the assistance of General Smuts and others, has helped in building up the prosperity of South Africa ; and lot him not forget my countrymen now when it lies in his power to raise their standard. He: cannot permanently relegate them to a position of inferiority ; for therein lies a menace nut to his country or to mine, but to the Empire. As an Imperial Statesman. I appeal to him next as an Imperial statesman. Ever since the days of the Armistice, what is it that General Smuts has stood up for ? He has stood up for peace, peace to all the worlel ; and he has stood as the protector of minorities. He has acquired a unique position as an Imperial statesman. It has given him. worlel-wide fame. What is it that we have observed during the last three weeks of the sitting of this Conference ? General Smuts has been trying to devise means to bring peace to a distracted world. Is he going to exclude from that happy mission of his his country and mine ? For let me tell you that there shall be no peace unless he inclueles his country and my country within the ambit of his big proposals. Ido not address him on the basis of the resolution of 1921 ; Ido not wish to interfere with his very natural desire to be consistent. I appeal to him independently of that resolution, and I say to him, " Will you not join hands with me, as T have: appealed to the, other Dominion Prime Ministers, in devising methods for the solution of this problem now and for all time ?" Ido not indulge in any threat; that is not in my line ; and I hope General Smuts will not misunderstand me. However powerful he may be in South Africa, and however weak we may be in. India, you cannot relegate my countrymen for all time in King George's Empire to a, position of inferiority. As Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. I will now address General Smuts as the Prime Minister of South Africa. Does he fully realize the implication of his present policy ? I doubt whether he does. Will he not be aggravating the trouble, not merely in South Africa, but throughout the world, by putting the white people on one side and the coloured races on the other side '. I tell him frankly that if the: Indian problem in South Africa is allowed to fester much longer it will pass, as I said just now, beyond the bounds of a domestic issue and will become a question of foreign policy of such gravity that upon it the unity of the Empire may founder irretrievably. I therefore earnestly trust that he will not refuse- ter co -operate with me in attempting to discover a solution, and I also hope that, in view of the present seriousness of a situation to which my Government and my people have referred more often than I can repeat here, he will agree to the appointment of a Diplomatic Agent to be sent by the Government of India to South Africa, who will protect our nationals there, who will act as an intermediary between them and the South African Government, and who will put our Government in full possession of the facts relating to our nationals. Proposals contained in General Smuts's Memorandum. I will very briefly make; a reference to the proposals which General Smuts has been good enough to circulate in a memorandum* among the members of this Conference. I have read them with very great care and witli all the attention and weight to which a memorandum of General Smuts's is entitled. Let me tell him, and let me tell you all, that it is a document of remarkable subtlety, such subtlety as I have always been accustomed to associate with the name of General Smuts. In. the first place, Gene:ra! Smuts takes exception to what Mr. Sastri has been saying or doing. Ido not hold a brief for Mr. Sastri. He has been an intimate friend of mine and a fellow-worker in public life during the last twenty years. If the only objection General Smuts has got to find with him, and if the only crime to be attributed to him, is that he, has in the Dominions frankly and freely pleaded for the equality of his countrymen, then let me tell General Smuts that he is indicting not merely Mr. Sastri, but 320,000,000 of my countrymen. We all plead guilty ter that charge. Implications of Memorandum. I will refer no more to that personal issue, but I will ask you first of all to consider the implications of that important memorandum. General Smuts compares the British Commonwealth to the League

* See Annex]!*.