Mc Clelland, D.F.

Letter, August 3, 1928¹¹⁷

[Mr. McClelland, General Secretary of YMCA in Madras, in a letter of July 23, 1928, recalled that he had spoken to Gandhiji earlier about American immigration laws which excluded Indians and about an appeal which was being made to the American Congress and people for an amendment of the laws. He sent a copy of the appeal sponsored by the Commission on International Justice and Goodwill of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, and a digest of letters received in reply. Dr. Sidney Gulick, the Secretary of the Commission, had asked Mr. McClelland for a judgment, after careful investigation, as to whether the sore point lay in the race discrimination feature or in the fact of exclusion. McClelland requested Gandhiji's opinion on this matter as that would be of great value.¹¹⁸]

Swaraj Ashram,
Bardoli,
August 3, 1928

Dear friend,
I thank you for your letter and the enclosure. You will excuse me for the delay in replying - I was so busy. Dr. Gullick's question is very relevant. My own opinion is that it is not the "open door" that is wanted but really courteous treatment, not a mere declaration. And if it is really courteous treatment that is really to be accorded, it is not difficult to find a legal formula wherewith an "Asiatic Invasion," as unrestricted immigration of the Asiatics is called, can be effectively checked while no Indian, whose competition need never be feared, would be excluded, or, admitted only after undergoing humiliating and discriminative treatment.
I need not now answer the question as to whether hundred Indians a year or more or less will answer the purpose. The number counts for nothing, the manner means everything.

Yours sincerely,

D.F. McClelland, Esq.
Young Men's Christian Association,
Esplanade,
Madras