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he dropped senseless from his chair and had to be carried home. In my difficulties I would sometimes see him and obtain valuable help and advice. When I was in England, I met him occasionally, and he always spoke of India in terms of affection for our people and of sympathy for our aspirations.

Ours was a peripatetic committee. We visited the headquarters of the different provinces, examined witnesses, and consulted the local Governments. Everywhere we were received with open arms. There was no talk of boycotting us or refusing to give evidence or furnish information. Especially was the advice of the local Govern- ments most helpful, and everywhere we had the opportunity of personal discussion with the heads of Governments and Councillors and Secretaries. The two Governments that we found the least sympathetic were those of Madras and the Punjab. The Madras Government was very unwilling to have a general electorate—it was to be communal throughout. The Punjab Government would have only a small number of members for the Legislative Council, and would not have the broad franchise recommended in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report. The Committee did not agree, and the Committee had their own way.

In taking leave of the Committee, I desire to say one word in regard to Sir Frank Sly, late Governor of the Central Provinces. He was our Vice-Chairman; and sometimes in the absence of Lord Southborough he presided at our meetings. His grasp of detail, his familiarity with the conduct and management of committees, and the effectiveness of his cross-examination of witnesses, hostile or unwilling, were all a valuable aid to the Committee. As I followed his cross-examination, it struck me at times that he had mistaken his vocation, and that his proper place was at the Bar and not in the Indian Civil Service. My friend Mr. Aftab Mohamed proved a stalwart champion of the Mohamedan community, and, though he never lost sight of the larger interests of the nation, he seemed to me as a member of the Committee to give preference to the parti- cular views of his Mohamedan co-religionists. Mr. Shastri was generally fair, but he had a sort of suspicion that Bengal was having too much her own way, and at times he tried to put on the brake. The official members, in my opinion, tried to hold the balance evenly, and, on the whole, with fairness to all interests. Altogether we were a happy family, enjoying our work, delighting in the oppor- tunity of meeting the representatives of so many interests and the rulers of so many provinces. To me this novel occupation, of sitting