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of the India Council, which rejected it. However that may be, the system is doomed. The Government of Bengal under the Reforms has formulated a scheme for the separation. The matter is under consideration. Finance, as usual, stands in the way.
Among other matters in regard to which I moved Resolutions were the question of the Press Act, Education, the recommenda- tions of the Decentralization Commission relating to the expansion of Local Self-government, the appointment of an advisory com- mittee to deal with internees, and finally the Reform proposals contained in the Montagu-Chelmsford Scheme. I pressed for a modification of the Press Act, not for its repeal; for I knew that as a matter of practical politics its repeal was out of the question. I urged that the safeguards which had been promised by the Government should be made operative and not rendered illusory, as they were declared to be by the Chief Justice, Sir Lawrence Jenkins, in the Comrade case. The voting on the non-official Indian side was practically unanimous; but there was again the official majority, and the motion was defeated. I had expected no better result, but I thought that it was possible that, as the result of the debate, the administration of the Press Act would follow more popular and conciliatory lines. I cannot say that that hope was realized. The complaints against the administration of the Press Act continued as loud and as persistent after the debate as before; the influence of the solid phalanx of the non-official Indian minority was powerless to modify the policy of the Government.
The Morley-Minto Councils were constituted as advisory bodies; and to the last they retained this character, even when the unanimity of Indian public opinion was expressed with unequivocal emphasis. Only on two occasions do I remember the official vote yielding to the pressure of non-official opinion. One was when a Resolution was moved for the postponement of a Bill relating to the organiza- tion of the presidency banks; the other was for the appointment of a committee to enquire into the complaints of postal and telegraph clerks and subordinates. But these were not proposals involving important questions of principle or policy.
The reform of the Calcutta University looms largely in the public view. We have before us a great measure of reform recommended by what is known as the 'Sadler Commission'. It involves far- reaching changes and heavy outlay. There was one little change in the existing constitution of the Calcutta University which I ventured to suggest from my place in the Imperial Legislative Council, in a