Joint statement by Drs. Dadoo and Naicker, Presidents of the Transvaal and Natal Indian Congresses, on the correspondence between General Smuts and Pandit Nehru, August 1947
We, the Presidents of the Natal and Transvaal Congresses, representing the overwhelming majority of the Indian community in both Provinces, welcome and fully support the stand taken by Pandit Nehru on behalf of South African Indians on the question of negotiations between India and South Africa.
We have implicit faith in both the Governments of India and Pakistan to champion our cause vigorously and adopt firm measures to obtain justice and democratic rights for South African Indians in conformity with the principles of the United Nations Charter.
We reluctantly but justifiably deplore the attitude adopted by General Smuts in his letter of June 18 to Pandit Nehru. It is a deliberate misstatement of facts on the part of Smuts, who had full knowledge of the true position, to state: "Groups representing all classes of Indians are dissatisfied with the conduct of the affairs by the Natal Congress, whose leadership was under an ideological influence of which they disapproved and whose approach they consider harmful to Indian interests."
These are the facts:
1. The Natal Indian Congress can boast a membership of 35,000 out of a total of 228,000 Indians in Natal. The officials are elected at properly constituted public meetings and enjoy the fullest confidence of the overwhelming mass of Indians in Natal. These facts have been demonstrated at dozens of mass meetings attended by as many as 10,000 to l2,000 Indians who wholeheartedly endorsed the policy of Congress.
2. The struggle for democratic rights has never been influenced by ideological conceptions. The battle is waging against the racialist tendencies of the Government which denies Indians who are South African nationals: (a) the rights of citizenship; (b) freedom of movement; (e) freedom of residence; (d) freedom to purchase land; and (e) equality of opportunity in the economic and educational spheres.
The "group representing all classes" referred to by the Prime Minister is no other than a handful of discredited individuals styling themselves the Natal Indian Organisation. This so-called organisation, which claims to represent the views of the Indian people, came into being at a secret meeting a few months ago, behind closed doors guarded by officers of the C.I.D. supplied by the Government. This handful of disgruntled individuals danced to the tune of the Prime Minister and indulged in flirtations with him while delicate correspondence affecting the future of Indians was going on between the two Governments.
In Parliament, Smuts frankly admitted that he did not know how many Indians this "group representing all classes" represented.
In the Transvaal, where there is a population of 37,000 Indians, the Transvaal Indian Congress is the only organisation representing all sections of the Indians. Its officials, like those of the Natal Congress, are democratically elected at mass meetings attended by 10,000 out of the total of 37,000 persons, and the present policy enjoys the wholehearted support of the mass of the Indians. The leadership amongst Transvaal Indians remains unchallenged.
Yet Smuts has the impertinence to tell the Government of India that his obstinacy in refusing to hold discussions on the basis of the United Nations decision is backed by a considerable volume of responsible Indian opinion in South Africa.
We challenge this statement.
In his long career as a South African statesman, Smuts has stooped on many occasions to methods far from honourable, but his latest action in using the very name of the people concerned in support of his attempt to evade the decision of the World Assembly will remain the grossest misrepresentation ever made by the Prime Minister of a country.