It may be that having lost faith in His Excellency's probity and
capacity to hold the high office of Viceroy of India, I now read his
speeches with a biased mind, but the speech His Excellency delivered at
the time of opening of the council shows to me a mental attitude which
makes association with him or his Government impossible for
self-respecting men.
The remarks on the Punjab mean a flat refusal to grant redress. He would
have us to 'concentrate on the problems of the immediate future!' The
immediate future is to compel repentance on the part of the Government
on the Punjab matter. Of this there is no sign. On the contrary, His
Excellency resists the temptation to reply to his critics, meaning
thereby that he has not changed his opinion on the many vital matters
affecting the honour of India. He is 'content to leave the issues to the
verdict of history.' Now this kind of language, in my opinion, is
calculated further to inflame the Indian mind. Of what use can a
favourable verdict of history be to men who have been wronged and who
are still under the heels of officers who have shown themselves utterly
unfit to hold offices of trust and responsibility? The plea for
co-operation is, to say the least, hypocritical in the face of the
determination to refuse justice to the Punjab. Can a patient who is
suffering from an intolerable ache be soothed by the most tempting
dishes placed before him? Will he not consider it mockery on the part of
the physician who so tempted him without curing him of his pain?
His Excellency is, if possible, even less happy on the Khilafat. "So far
as any Government could," says this trustee for the nation, "we pressed
upon the Peace Conference the views of Indian Moslems. But
notwithstanding our efforts on their behalf we are threatened with a
campaign of non-co-operation because, forsooth, the allied Powers found
themselves unable to accept the contentions advanced by Indian Moslems."
This is most misleading if not untruthful. His Excellency knows that the
peace terms are not the work of the allied Powers. He knows that Mr.
Lloyd George is the prime author of terms and that the latter has never
repudiated his responsibility for them. He has with amazing audacity
justified them in spite of his considered pledge to the Moslems of India
regarding Constantinople, Thrace and the rich and renowned lands of Asia
minor. It is not truthful to saddle responsibility for the terms on the
allied Powers when Great Britain alone has promoted them. The offence of
the Viceroy becomes greater when we remember that he admits the justness
of the Muslim claim. He could not have 'pressed' it if he did not admit
its justice.
I venture to think that His Excellency by his pronouncement on the
Punjab has strengthened the nation in its efforts to seek a remedy to
compel redress of the two wrongs before it can make anything of the
so-called Reforms.