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the Calcutta Improvement Trust should also be the Chairman of the new Trust.

Wherever I went on tour the idea of a hartal was started by the local Non-Co-operators. It never came to much anywhere. At Faridpore, it was not seriously thought of by anybody; for there was still living, though prostrated on the bed of sickness, that out- standing personality, Babu Ambika Churn Majumder, the Grand Old Man of East Bengal, the apostle of steady and orderly progress. At Dinajpore, in North Bengal, they attempted to keep people away from the meeting; but in vain. It was not that these people did not want sanitation, but they would not apparently have it from the Government. They had, however, no hesitation in frequenting the Government law courts, where in the pursuit of their profession they made money, or in availing themselves of the Government railways, and postal and telegraph services. It was a convenient kind of Non-Co-operation, ministering to one's wants and needs, but manifesting itself in fervid demonstrations of rowdyism at public meetings daring to proclaim views unacceptable to the leaders. Their friends in the Legislative Council had a notion that we drew handsome allowances from the public funds in making these tours, and a question was asked, and an answer was given, that showed we drew nothing of the kind and that railway accom- modation alone was provided for us. As a matter of fact, these tours involved out-of-pocket expenses, and were a source of con- siderable personal trouble and inconvenience. At Dinajpore, which is badly infected with malarial fever, I slept in the Circuit House in a room covered with net-work as a precaution against mos- quitoes. The net-work did not, however, protect me. I had an attack of fever and it took me months before I could shake it off.

The object of these tours was to create an atmosphere that would stimulate the discussion of local sanitary problems and their ultimate solution. The aim was popular co-operation, and I claim that my efforts contributed to awaken popular interest in problems that seemed to be too dry and uninteresting to appeal to the popular imagination. In defending myself against the charge of inaction in the work of my Department, I used language which will bear repetition. I said:

'Sir, passing from the consideration of our legislative programme to the work of our department, what do we find? 1 claim, Sir—not as an

individual but as a member of the Reformed Government,—I claim that