Page:A Nation in Making.djvu/273

affair. A vote of condolence with Lady Curzon-Wyllie was passed; but the main issues upon which I had hoped to address the leaders of the Liberal party had to be left untouched. A golden opportunity was missed; the assassination of Sir William Curzon-Wyllie was responsible for it. The Chairman indeed said in bringing the pro- ceedings to a close: 'We desire to do our utmost to further the cause of constitutional progress and development in India.' It took the British democracy ten years to make a substantial step in this direction, and possibly this would even then have been delayed, but for the war and the time-forces that it had helped to create.

The last speech of any importance that I delivered on this occasion was at Caxton Hall under the presidency of Sir Charles Dilke. Sir Charles Dilke was one of the foremost public men of his day, respected alike for the soundness of his views and his know- ledge of the political situation outside Great Britain. He had a close insight into Indian affairs, combined with sympathy for Indian aspirations. It was a great thing to have got him to preside at our meeting. I spoke on the Partition of Bengal and the Morley-Minto Scheme. It may not be out of place here to reproduce what I said of the Morley-Minto Scheme in 1909, two years before the Des- patch of the Government of India promising provincial autonomy, and cight years before the Parliamentary Message of responsible government. I said:

'The Scheme (Morley-Minto) contains no concessions which have not been in some form or other repeatedly asked for. So far from the Scheme being lavish, I will say that it does not come up to our expectations in re- gard to many matters of vital importance. For instance, we want the power of the purse. We want definite control at least over some of the great de- partments of the State: over Sanitation, Education and the Public Works Department. Are you not aware that thousands of my countrymen die every year from preventible diseases, such as malaria and cholera ? If we had an effective control over finance or at least over the sanitary measures. to be employed, I am convinced that we could prevent to some extent the appalling rate of mortality which now desolates the village homes of Bengal. The expenditure on education is inadequate. As for elementary education. the less said the better. We want the power of the purse and a definite and effective measure of self-government. That we have not got. All that the Reform scheme does—and let me be perfectly candid in the matter—is to provide the machinery by which the representatives of the people would be in a position to bring to bear upon the Government not anything like direct influence but indirect moral pressure.'