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quarters of the Suffragist movement, with which of course I had no concern. I occupied these rooms with Mr. Kedarnath Das Gupta of Chittagong, who, let me here record, did me most useful service in helping me to move about London. He is a permanent resident and knows every corner of the great city, and was my companion in my numerous visits to persons and places.
The first function at which I spoke, and in which the Partition of Bengal was the burden of my theme, was a dinner in my honour organized by a committee of Indian residents, of which Mr. Parekh was the chairman. The dinner was held at the Westminister Palace Hotel and among the guests were many Members of Parliament, including Sir Henry Cotton, Mr. Mackarness and Mr. Ramsay Macdonald. The gathering was in one sense a unique one, consist- ing of representatives from all parts of India and of its varied creeds. But it was not merely an Indian demonstration. It was in truth a convention of the English friends of India assembled to hear an Indian public man engaged in one of the keenest political struggles of his generation. As might have been expected, there was the deepest sympathy and appreciation of the work done by my colleagues and myself in the fight that we carried on for the modi- fication of the Partition.
There rang out, too, from that meeting a clear note of condem- nation of the measures of repression that were for the first time employed to deal with political agitation. Punishment without trial is abhorrent to Englishmen, though it should take no harsher form than simple detention. Even Lord Morley, who sanctioned the deportations on the advice, apparently the insistent advice, of the men on the spot, disapproved of them in his heart of hearts, and was never, as would appear from his Recollections, reconciled to them. When referring to recent measures of legislation, I said in the course of my speech, 'Never was there a confession of a more hopeless failure. Where in the history of the world has repression been successful?' I was cheered to the echo.
Sir Henry Cotton, who followed me, said that 'if the growth of national feeling in India and of the sense of patriotism and enthu- siasm for the motherland was due to any man, that man was Babu Surendranath Banerjea.' Mr. Keir Hardie, one of the best friends of India, whose premature death we all lament, spoke next. He said: 'Mr. Banerjea was one of the few, very few, whose perso- nality was greater than his reputation.' Mr. Mackarness, one of the friends of India, whom we have lost by his translation to a Govern-