the organised Civil Service by every possible means. You may remember how Lord Morley had to play the same part. The Viceroy has given them guarantees foreshadowed in his speech in the opening session of our Council, and the Viceroy has granted to them increased salaries and is contemplating, I understand, a scheme of increased pensions as well. Nevertheless, he recognised that the future Government of India is a Government by 'vote'-no longer by despatch-and that is the great point that we have got to remember in shaping our course to-day. We have got to realise that the Government here is to be a Government by 'vote,' that is to say by people whom you place in power as a result of contested elections during which opinion clashes with opinion and programmes of reform compete with programmes of reform and men with one set of political opinions contend for the suffrages of their constituents with men holding a rival set of opinions. This we have got to realise even before it comes. The situation is this. Before, in India, Government by vote' comes in we have to realise that that great change can only come in by manipulation of opinions and vote in the English Parliament. Their Parties are divided; we have friends of reform, men in whom this principle of progress that I have just

now

mentioned finds illustrious embodiment, people who may be represented as the vehicle of the better mind of the English generally. There is the other Party represented by Lord Sydenham seconded by the Justice' Party in India and by the Anglo Indian Press in this country. Between two sets of people we have to win what we desire. Ought we not, I ask, by every means open to us, strengthen the hands of the 'friends' of reform, men like Mr. Montagu, who have determined that if they can help it, India shall take one long and big stride in constitutional progress. Let us then do nothing in India, which may weaken their hands, which it will be difficult for them to defend, which our opponents may be able to put forward as proving the proposition that India is either unfit by nature or distempered for the time being for the receipt of any large measure of political power. This is a great lesson that we must never let go out of our minds.

I have during the last few months come in contact with some Europeans who seemed to me to be genuine representatives of this principle of progress. They have told me, 'we are not many in England, it takes a good deal of knowledge for us to translate our theoretical sympathy into practical benefit for your cause. Help us therefore by

enabling us to understand vou Lots of good, well-meaning people enthusiastic for the liberation of humanity there are in England, but they have been continually mistaught and misguided. A good many of them believe that India will pass, when the hand of Great Britain relaxes-that India will pass into the hands of people who are social and religious reactionaries, that the power will then be wielded to turn the face of India backward, that attempts will be made in a Chauvinistic direction to replace ancient institutions that have ceased to serve and violate the conscience of Western Civilisation, that you will attempt once more to enthrone caste privilege and bring in the numberless divisions that unhappily divide you, that you will in every way undo the great things that-unconsciously it may be, Great Britain in her civilising mission-limit it as you may in your comprehension-accomplished in India. Come then, some of you and teach us to believe, as we heartily desire to believe, that you will carry on, when seated in the place of power, the traditions that we have built up in India, that you will stand for intellectual and social progress, that you will stand for perfect toleration, perfect equality of religions, that you will do nothing in fact to hinder India from taking her place amongst the great Nations of the world. You will have to give us that assurance." And if we are to do that most important business I think the direction in which we must spend our energies, the shape that we must give to all our thoughts and actions, is pretty clear. Now, only one idea I have got to state and with it I will finish. There are some amongst us who do not wish that any Indian of prominence should be associated even in social matters with Europeans. I have myself been often criticised and sometimes violently ridiculed for my attempts to understand the European and to be understood by him I do not in the least feel embarrassed by such criticism. I know it proceeds from ignorance. I know it proceeds from complete failure to understand the necessities of Indian conditions. Gentlemen, I have just now said that it is one of our primary duties to increase the volume of sympathetic opinion in England, that you have to mollify and to subdue to sympathize with it the asperities of European opinion here. Now everyone knows that sympathy is born of true knowledge and intercourse. Do not turn round upon me and say "Do not the Germans and the English understand each other?" Now I do not say that sympathy and knowledge alone will

NDIANS have a direct interest in the settlement of the Palestine question. To begin with, that country divides with Egypt the honour of guarding the bridgehead between Europe and Asia, and so long as war is not banished from the world and that prospect daily becomes dimmer and dimmer, whatever happens to Palestine vitally concerns us. Muslim shrines are, moreover, strewn about Palestine in great profusion, and while India has 70,000,000 Muslims, any resettlement of any part of the Muslim world touches Hindus and Muslims alike.

With these ideas simmering in my mind, I called upon Mr. Israel Zangwill, the Hebrew litterateur and dramatist, whose imagination, idealism, and humour are appreciated wherever English is read. Though he is burning with the desire to lead his people back to Zion, he thinks in terms of humanity and not merely in those of Judaism.

The very first glimpse that I had of Mr. Zingwill gave me that impression. It was in 1912 that I made his acquaintance. The Italian war upon Turkey had just commenced. He came to a meeting organised by Mr. W. T. Stead in London to urge the British people to stop that war, and spoke warmly in support of that movement. I was greatly touched to find this ardent Zionist standing up boldly in defence of the liberty of the Muslims in Tripoli. But Mr. Stead assured me that Zangwill's particular mission in life was to champion the under-dog, whoever he may be.

When I called upon Mr. Zangwill the other day I found that it was not at all necessary to remind him that Palestine was a land sacred to the Muslims as well as to the Hebrews and Christians. Hardly had we begun to talk on the subject when he referred to that problem.

At present there were, he said, something like 600,000 Arabs in Palestine. What would become of them if a Jewish State were created there? How would they be able to compete successfully with the Jews, who, in all parts of the world, have proved their ability to survive under the most discouraging conditions? Besides, if the Arabs remain in the country and the Jews do not employ them on the land, the Jews will be criticised for leaving them out in the cold, while, on the other hand, if the Jews give them work the world will be told that they get others to do their manual work. In either case the Jews will come in for

criticism.

But, Mr. Zangwill asked, why could not an amicable arrangement be made whereby the Jews may buy out the vested interests of these 600,000 Arabs in Palestine, and then settle gradually the new Arab State? These people, he declared, live under canvas, or in mud hovels. But the Jews would be willing to pay a fair price for every value they had created.

Why could not the Jews, Mr. Zangwill inquired, render financial assistance to the Arab State and establish good neighbourly relations?

In regard to the sacred places, Mr. Zangwill suggested that the Hebrew converts to Islam should be put in charge of the Muslim shrines. whereas the Christian holy places should be entrusted to the Hebrew converts to Christianity. When the Jewish hatred for the Apostate is remembered, this suggestion coming from a son of Israel appears most remarkable.

In considering Mr. Zangwill's ideas about the future of Palestine it is necessary to bear two facts in mind:

First, Jewish aspirations for a national home in the land of Israel are not confined to one small

section of Hebrews. On the contrary, they are cherished by Jews rich and poor, influential and lowly, in all quarters of the globe. Jews living in lands where there is no political persecution, and in countries where they are constantly maltreated and occasionally massacred, are keenly interested in the Zionist movement.

Second, the great Powers associated together for purposes of war, speaking through responsible statesmen, have definitely committed themselves to the realisation of that ideal. For instance, the Rt. Hon. J. Balfour, His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, declared, on November 2, 1917:

"His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use its best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of its object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

Apart from the allegations made against the Turks, these circumstances render it impossible for Palestine to revert to the estatus quo ante bellum.

We must further remember that so long as we in India, both Muslims and Hindus, are claiming national rights, we cannot resist a similar movement in another corner of Asia. To do so would be to expose us to the jeers of our political enemies. Thoughtful Muslims in Britain are beginning to realise this. One of them with whom I was talking the other day admitted quite frankly that something will have to be done to satisfy the the Jewish desire for a national home. But he contended that the only way in which it could be done without giving offence to Muslims would be to convert Palestine into an autonomous Jewish State of the Turkish Empire,

I do not know how that suggestion will commend itself to the Hebrews. But with goodwill on both sides, I am sure that the problem is capable of a solution that will be satisfactory to the Mus

lims and the Jews alike. It certainly is in the interests of both, and of the world at large, that a via media should be found.

At any rate, it is quite as much in the interests of the Muslims as of the Jews that the settlement in Palestine, Syria, or any other part of the near or middle East be not dictated by designing Im. perialist jingoes. Mr. Zangwill, I found, had no patience with men who were bent merely upon such enterprises. He would not have a camouflaged Jewish State. He wishes the land of Zion to be the home of his people, and to be managed by them.

If a Hebrew could be found to govern, from Whitehall, so large and populous a country as India, he pertinently asked, why could not a Hebrew be found capable of being the supreme of Jewish Palastine? Why not, indeed?

head

Persons who talk of a Jewish Vice Governor for Palestine (and in this case I have heard the name of the Rt. Hon. Herbert Samuel, a cousin of the Rt. Hon. E. S. Montagu, mentioned) do so because they would like to have General Allenby, or some other such person, set in authority over the whole of the Near East and Middle Asia. These people really dream of the extension of the Empire by the incorporation, under one name or another, of the whole of Middle Asia.

Mr. Zangwill is, however, the sworn foe of all expansionists. He wishes the settlement of the whole world to proceed in conformity with Presi-, dent Wilson's "fourteen points." and each new State to enjoy free institutions. Indians may rest assured that he has no sympathy with those Imperialists who do not hesitate to tell the world that English Jews will be satisfied if Palestine is given, for the time being, a Crown Colony Government under British tutelage, so long as the officials are Jewe, preferably English Jews.

I asked Mr. Zangwill if he thought that the Hebrews would smigrate to Palsating in suffe

A

ently large numbers if it were constituted into a Jewish State. He said that the trouble would be to keep emigrants out until the land was ready for them. Under long misrule, he declared, Palestine had become desolate and it would take years of assiduous labour to make it fit for the reception of further agricultural colonies. Irrigation would have to be developed, communications built, sanitation introduced, and towns planned. The work would be stupendous, and would require brains, men, and money.

What was happening in Palestine at the present time, I asked. From the latest account that Mr. Zangwill had received, he could not say that much progress was being made in any direction. The site for the Jewish University had been bought and that fact had been announced with a flourish of trumpets. But all schemes for development must, of necessity, hang fire until the Jews and others knew what the Peace Conference proposes to do about Palestine.

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The strong Imperialist tendencies that assert themselves in spite of Dr. Wilson's idealism, have made Mr. Zangwill extremely weary, as, indeed, they have made others. From what one hears,

one often wonders if justice will triumph in the end, and if, after all, the world will be resettled along Wilsonian lines.

To do Mr. Zang will justice, I must say that he is looking forward to the consolidation of the Arab people, as of all the world, on a basis of reason and goodwill. He does not wish to see Arabia, Mesopotamia, or, for that matter, any part of the Near or the Middle East, become a part of any Imperial system while retaining nominal independence. He has, moreover, a very shrewd idea that we in India do not lack administrative genius, as Englishmen who have been out to India would like to have the world believe. All movements for national rights have his blessing, and can count upon all the support that he can lend them.

more rea

HE older Indian Universities at the Presidency towns, were established as early as in 1857. The foundation of the Universities marks a distinct epoch in the renaissance of modern India for sons than one. In the first place they perhaps for the first time threw open the portals of learning to all alike, rich and poor, Brahmin and Pariah, Hindu and Mussalman. In the second place they brought into India a knowledge of the western sciences which have revolutionised human civilisation by harnessing the forces of nature to the use of mankind and by attempting to give man an insight into the

Inaugural address delivered by Dr. P. Neogi M.A., Ph.D., P.R.S., F.C.S., to the Rajshahi College Chemical Society on the 27th, February.

workings of nature in her manifold fields of work.