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the choice of any portfolio that I preferred. The offer was not unexpected, though perhaps I did not anticipate that it would be made at that interview. It was in the air, and was the subject of common conversation. I accepted the offer and suggested that, as regards my subjects, I should like to have Education and Local Self-government. Lord Ronaldshay pointed out that such a com- bination was impossible in view of the arrangement of the work in the Secretariat. He sent for Mr. Gourlay, his Private Secretary, and obtained from him a printed list of the division of the port- folios, and showed it to me, adding that he would send me a copy later. I said that provisionally I would accept Local Self-govern- ment, with which was linked up the Medical Department, but I requested that His Excellency would give me time for further consideration and final decision. This was readily complied with, and Lord Ronaldshay thanked me for taking up Local Self-govern- ment, in which he was greatly interested and which he largely controlled.

In the course of the conversation His Excellency raised the question as to who should be my Hindu colleague, for he had already made up his mind that there should be three ministers, two Hindus and one Mohamedan. I had no hesitation in suggest- ing the name of Mr. P. C. Mitter. The only doubt that Lord Ronaldshay felt about the matter was that Mr. Mitter was not an educationist. I explained to him that every graduate of the Calcutta University was more or less familiar with our educational pro- blems, and that Mr. Mitter had been for a number of years Secre- tary of the South Suburban School, one of the largest educational institutions in Calcutta, teaching at the time up to the Matriculation standard. The impression left on my mind was that he would prefer an educational expert, and was thinking of one outside the elected members of the Council. I pointed out that that would be contrary to the intentions of the Statute, and he seemed to agree.

He said nothing about the Mohamedan member. In a conver- sation I had with him a few days before, he had spoken to me about Dr. Abdulla Surhawardy as a highly cultured and intellec- tual Mohamedan. Dr. Surhawardy had been appointed by the Bengal Government. a co-opted member on the Franchise Com- mittee, Mr. P. C. Mitter holding a similar position on the Functions Committee. But in the meantime, while other Mohamedan leaders, swayed by the torrential gusts of the Khilafat movement, were wavering between co-operation and non-co-operation, Nawab