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Regulations, and that in no case should the period of detention without trial exceed three months.
The question of the deportations under the Regulations assumed a wider interest when in 1907 and 1908 under Lord Minto's administration the Regulations were vigorously worked. Lala Lajpat Rai and Sirdar Ajit Singh were deported from the Punjab, while in Bengal Babu Krishna Kumar Mittra, Babu Aswini Kumar Dutt, Babu Syam Sunder Chakervarti and several others were similarly dealt with. It is a melancholy chapter in the history of my province to which I shall have to refer later on. A bad law in the hands of rulers owing no responsibility to the people is apt to be worked in a manner that often creates grave public dissatisfac- tion. In times of excitement, when deeper and more permanent remedial measures are needed, it affords a short cut for meeting the situation, leaving behind bitter memories that take years to efface.
The year 1898 opened with dark clouds rolling over the political horizon, with popular unrest followed by repression. Famine and plague cast their shadows over the land. The popular excitement was aggravated by the plague measures so ruthlessly enforced at Poona. Upon their heels came the murder of two European officers, the deportation of the Natu brothers, and the alleged disclosure of the existence of secret conspiracies in the western presidency.
It was when the atmosphere was so charged with the forces that make for unrest that Lord Curzon assumed the Viceroyalty of India. In India we had known him as a brilliant parliamen- tarian and as one of the coming leaders of the great political party to which he belonged. We were expectant, but not confident; and we acted as men in that attitude of mind would often do. When we met in Congress in Madras in December, 1898, which was synchronous with his assumption of the Viceroyalty, we gave him credit for qualities which we hoped he would display in the govern- ment of India. I was entrusted with the Resolution according him a hearty welcome, and we proceeded to add in the Resolution the hope and trust that the policy of progress and confidence that had characterized the best traditions of British rule would be followed during his Lordship's tenure of office.
In supporting my Resolution I quoted from Lord Curzon's speeches delivered immediately after his appointment as Viceroy of India. In one of them he said: 'I love India, its people, its history, its government, the complexities of its civilization and