I will read out to you what the _Bengalee_ says. Unfortunately we
cannot dissociate the Editor of the _Bengalee_ from the paper.
Otherwise I would have cast it into the waste-paper basket and would
not have thought about it. This is what the _Bengalee_ writes in its
editorial of June 6th;--
"We confess that we have read the above with pain and regret, though
not with surprise, for in a recent article, we pretty clearly
indicated the constitution and the policy of the present Bengal
Provincial Congress Committee. The old leaders are the men of
yesterday and they of course should have no voice in the deliberation
of the _New India_ which they have helped to build up. For we are
always wiser than our fathers, and to acknowledge our indebtedness
to them is to belittle our own importance which must always be a
prime consideration. There is only one little risk which their policy
involves and they may as well be reminded of it thus early, _viz_.,
that they may be paid back in their own coins and with compound
interest by those who come after them."
What is there in this innocent letter to call for this personal and
vehement attack? Are we to be condemned because we are asking the
people of this country to watch the pronouncement of the Secretary of
State? We are asking the people of this country to examine it and if it
falls short of popular demands to criticise it, fearlessly and to hold
meetings and to attend those meetings in large numbers. "Large numbers"
is italicised by the _Bengalee_. It is a crime, a new crime to hold
meetings where "large numbers" attend. It used not to be so in the past
but it has become a crime now! I will go on reading another passage
from this article:--