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must speak in English, as he did not trust the translated reports of the C.I.D. officers. This observation seemed to me to be per- fectly innocuous, and I said so, especially as the same speaker on a former occasion had to complain of an inaccurate report of his speech by the C.I.D. To this His Excellency said in reply that it meant a reflection upon the C.I.D., about which the Government felt a natural concern, as the officers of the C.I.D. had too often been singled out for the vengeance of the revolutionary party.

I said in the course of the conversation that the fact that Sir Rash Behari Ghose was to have presided was a guarantee that the pro- ceedings of the meeting would be conducted upon moderate and reasonable lines. Lord Ronaldshay observed that they were not aware of this fact. I said that it could have been easily ascertained. His Excellency was throughout frank and reasonable; and he said that, if we gave a guarantee that no inflammatory language would be used and that the meeting would be properly conducted, he would withdraw the order of prohibition. We replied that we could give no undertaking, but that we would do our best to carry out His Excellency's wishes, and we added that there was always an implied understanding on the part of the organizers of public meet- ings that they should be conducted upon proper and reasonable lines. The upshot of it all was that the prohibition was to be with- drawn, subject to the assurance we gave.

We returned home gratified with our success. But I, for one, was not altogether free from doubt as to the sort of welcome that would be accorded to us. In Bengal, even the most indubitable achieve- ment is not always a passport to unqualified public approval. When the Partition of Bengal was modified, and when all thought that the voice of dissent would be drowned in a chorus of public apprecia- tion, there were those who regretted that Behar should have been separated from Bengal, and there were many more to whom the transfer of the capital came as a shock. I was therefore fully pre- pared for comment and criticism, especially in view of what had transpired at the conference, which broke up without a decision.

Our representative character was challenged, and one of those who had taken a leading part in our deliberations and had allowed himself to be nominated as a member of the Deputation, was loud in his protestations of our want of representative authority. But in this world nothing succeeds like success. The withdrawal of the prohibition was a point gained, the value of which could not be questioned. The public are not, or are only temporarily, concerned