Educational

Mahomedan Educational Conference

The Mahomedan Educational Conference, an account of which appears in another page, passed several important Resolutions touching the Education of Indian Mussalmans.

When the Conference met on the second-day, resolutions were moved offering congratulations to H. M. the King Emperor and appreciating H. E. H. the Nizam's services for the cause of Muslim Education. Another resolution thanked the Bombay Government for the satisfactory solution of the Urdu language difficulty: while a fourth referred to the granting of a holiday on Fridays for Mahomedans.

The next resolution passed was about establishing hostels for Mussalman students in Surat and every other place.

Donations from one rupee to one thousand were paid on the spot. Twenty-five thousand rupees were given by Mr. Mahomed bhoy Jariwala and Mr. Edroos. Several Hindu gentlemen present also contributed.

An All-India Committee was appointed to consider the medium of instruction for Mahomedans in different Provinces.

Ismail Haji Musa, a merchant in South Africa, then made a donation of Rs. 10,000 to the Aligarh College, for founding ten monthly fortyrupees scholarship for for Gujarathi students. Mr. Shaik Abdulla proposed and Kazi Kalruddin seconded the following resolution:

"That having regard to the delay in securing the establishment of the Muslim University, early steps be taken to secure the necessary legislation in the matter."

Another resolution expressed the feeling that the Government of Bengal failed to carry out

The Conference also adopted three resolutions passed by the Muslim Students Conference which met recently at Bombay. They were (1) asking the University to have compartmental and six monthly examinations, (2) to have Arabic taught at least in one Government College and High School, and (3) urging the extension of the Anjuman hostel at Bombay.

The Students' Convention

The third Madras Students' Convention was held at Salem under the presidentship of the Rev. Allan Gardiner, Principal of the S. P. G. College, Trichinopoly. A large number of student delegates and visitors from several Districts attended the Convention. The Zemindar of Minampalli welcomed, as Chairman of the Reception Committee, the delegates in an interesting speech in which he said that the Convention could do most useful work by organising branches for social service work, etc. He traced the history of the existing system of education and said that the cure lay in a national system of education. He hoped that education would be one of the transferred subjects entirely under popular control. The speaker also impressed on all the need for commercial and industrial education.

The Rev. Mr. Gardiner after being formally voted to the chair delivered an address extracts from which are printed in page 48 under the title, "The Responsibilities of Students."

Medical

All-India Medical Conference

The All-India Medical Conference assembled at St. Stephen's College Hall, Delhi, on December 26, the Hon. Dr. Sir Nilratan Sircar presiding. Dr. J. K. Sen, the Chairman of the Reception Committee, in the coruse of his welcome address (See page 40) said that the conference would be a permanent institution, and as such invited the delegates' attention to need for devising a constitution.

Speaking about the Ayurvedic system of medicine he said it was difficult to co-operate with those who practised them simply because they could not have a common basis, but their attitude towards them might not necessarily be hostile. Students and teachers of western medicine had, generally speaking, ignored them but this, he said, he could not think was the right attitude. He thought that facilities should be given by Government for the study of indigenous medicines by providing pharmacological chairs and laboratories in some of the medical colleges of India.

The President, Sir Nilratan Sircar then addressed the assembly on "The task before the Medical Profession" (See page 38) At the conclusion of the war, he said, the task before the medical profession was simply appalling. Then referring to the influenza epidemic he appealed for a large army of medical men and for increased facilities for medical training.

Continuing the President expressed his opinion that the Reform Scheme as it affected their profession was satisfactory.

In conclusion the President pointed out that the time had come when greater attention should be paid to the important question of women's medical education and said that apart from women's classes in medical colleges, medical schools should be opened in important centres,

The Conference re-assembled on the following day and passed the following among other Resolutions.

This Conference approves of the recommendations of the Secretary of State and the Viceroy regarding the holding of simultaneous I.M.S. examinations in England and India, and tenders its respectful thanks to them for the recommendations;

This Conference strongly urges His Majesty's Government and the Government of India on the advisability of conterring permanent commissions upon Indian Members of the medical profession who offered themselves for war service, fifty per cent. of the total number of vacancies being filled for the next three years from those who held temporary commissions in the Indian Medical Service;

This Conference urges the immediate necessity of restricting the indian Medical Service to military work alone and of creating a new Civil Indian Medical Service for civil work. Members of both services should be recruited both in England and India by simultaneous competitive examinations;

This Conference resolves that at medico-legal examinations a medical representative of the party or parties concerned should be present during the examination and sign the report jointly with police

surgeons.

That a medical corps consisting of medical men with honorary commissions of medical students with Warrant Officer's rank should be formed in each province as a reserve from which officers and men could be drawn for military duty in an emergency;

That facilities for the formation of a standing Volunteer Ambulance Corps in each province should be afforded by Government with a view to their being utilized in emergencies like great festivals, fairs and similar occasions;

That it is urgently necessary that a number of Medical Colleges and Schools be increased at once;

Considering the bad sanitary condition of Indian villages and towns and want of knowledge on the part of the people, which brings about loss of thousands of lives, the Conference is of opinion that an independent section of the medical profession in each District should form themselves into committees and disseminate sanitary ideas amongst the people;

A pharmaceutical society be established in India to investigate and study Indian drugs on scientific principles and compile and preserve an indian pharmacopia on the lines of the British Pharmacopia and also give an impetus to the knowledge and practice of pharmaceutical chemistry in the country;

In the opinion of the Conference it is highly neces sary that post-graduate courses of training should be instituted in important medical educational institutions;

That the suggestion of the British Medical Association that the appointment of Indian Medical Service graduates to higher posts should be made conditional upon their attending a course in Obstetrics and Gynocology in Great Britain is not only unnecessary but retrograde and mischievous and that it should at once make proper arrangements for the proper teaching of the subjects up to the necessary standard in Indian Universities.

Personal

Mrs. Besant on the Delhi Congress Mrs. Besant writes in the Commonweal :—

I am compelled to differ from the policy of the majority, and cannot therefore be an agent in carrying it out. The rejection of a compromise arrived at after full discussion, without the consent of both parties to it, on the very first occasion on which rejection was possible, seems to me to render future compromises unlikely, since they could never be depended on, and this condemns each school of political opinion to play a lone hand-a very disadvantageous position for India. "Divide and be conquered" is not a good motto for a Nation struggling for liberty against a compact and well-organised army of the defenders of autocracy and privileges. I see letters suggesting that "Mrs. Besant should try to bring about unity." Mrs. Besant has been working for unity all through, but after the rejection of the compromise arrived at, after long discussion at Bombay, between the progressive Moderates and the union-desiring Nationalists, will not the former naturally say: "What is the use of entering into a compromise which will be thrown overboard by your Nationalist friends on the first opportunity." The keeping of faith is an essential of clean politics, and without it no mutual trust can exist.

Ex-President Roosevelt

Ex-President Roosevelt died in New York on January 6. He was born in New York on the 27th October, 1858, and was the associate editor of the New York Outlook till his death. He was educated at Harvard; was a member of the New York Legislature, 1882-84; Leader of the Minority in 1883; Leader of the House in 1884; and United States' Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-95. He held the office of the President of the New York Police Board from 1895-97,

and in April of the same year was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Navy. He organised the First United States Cavalry Volunteers (Roosevelt's Rough Riders) and commanded it in Cuba in 1898. He was the Governor of New York State, 1898-1900; Vice-President of the United States, March 4 to September 14, 1901; President, 1901-8. He was the author, among other well-known works, of "The Winning of the West," 1889-95; "The Rough Riders," 1899; "Life of Cromwell"; "Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography," 1913; and "Life Histories of African Big Game," 1914. He was pro-British and wanted to organise a regiment of his own to join the war with the Allies long before the United States' Government actually declared against Germany. Col. Roosevelt was an ardent admirer of the British Rule in India of which he spoke in high terms on various occasions.

Sir George Llyod

The appointment of Captain George Lloyd, M.P., at the age of 32 to be Governor of Bombay may have surprised some members of the Old Gangs, but it came as no surprise to those who have known him and watched his work for years, writes a friend in the Daily Mail.

"I have a long acquaintance with Bombay and with its Governors and believe that Lloyd is the right man for Western India in this critical time. He is fearless in decision, but does not act hastily, and has a dash of that good Quaker blood which implies both prudence and sympathy. He knows the Empire from end to end but the East best of all. Essentially a just man, he has learned by long experience how to acquire and retain the confidence of Eastern races. He came back from India not long ago imbued with the conviction that reforms were imperatively needed there, and his appointment is a certain proof that in Bombay they will be handled in a liberal spirit."