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events which led to the establishment of British power in Western India, and were themselves men of light and leading in the capital of Maharashtra. When I was at Poona as President of the Congress, I was treated by them with courtesy, and along with other delagates was the recipient of their hospitality. The Congress movement was then still under a cloud of official suspicion, but they were not afraid to join it openly.

The Plague, the forced segregations, the compulsory domiciliary visits, had created a feeling of panic and alarm among the popula- tion at Poona. Mr. Gokhale, then in England, had received accounts of what had taken place; and his publication of them had brought him into trouble. There is nothing that touches our people so deeply as interference with their household arrangements and invasion into the sanctities of their domestic life. The excitement was intense and it culminated in the unhappy murder of Mr. Rand, President of the Plague Committee, and Lieut. Ayerst. There are always extremists among the organs of public opinion. They called for a gagging act, for deportations and other familiar methods of repression.

The Natu brothers as leading citizens had formally appealed to the Government to interfere. Soon after they were deported under an old, obsolete regulation (Regulation XXV of 1827 of the Bombay Regulations, corresponding to the Bengal Regulation, III of 1818), and their property was taken charge of by the Government. Was it the reward of their efforts for their country- men, or was it a bureaucratic device to strike terror into the hearts of the people? Whatever it was, it was useless and superfluous - in the language of Edmund Burke, 'a waste of the precious treasure of human suffering'. For the murderers of Mr. Rand and Lieut. Ayerst were soon traced. They were tried, convicted and hanged. The Natu brothers had been five months under detention when the Congress met.

The Congress Resolution on the subject, which I was asked to move, deprecated the exercise of the extraordinary powers vest- ed in the Government by the Regulations at a time of peace and quiet, though the Congress recognized that circumstances might arise in which it might be necessary to put them into force. The Congress recommended that, upon the appearance of such condi- tions in any province or a specified area, the fact should be notified that the Government intended to take action if necessary under the