228 LORD READING

Mr. Gandhi. Well, it did occur to me that my address was not
altogether unknown—but I informed Mr. Malaviya that if
Mr. Gandhi applied to me for an interview I would readily grant
it, and I should be glad to hear his views. The consequence was
that in due course Mr. Gandhi did apply and there was not only
one interview but several interviews between us. There was
no finesse or manoeuvring about it. It seemed to be a plain
and straightforward arrangement for an interview. Here again
I think I am not quite so free to tell you all that you might
desire to know—yet I will say that I am quite certain that the
results of these interviews produced at least this satisfactory
result, that I got to know Mr. Gandhi and he got to know me.
The result may be somewhat vague and indefinite, yet it is not
entirely so. As you may be aware, the result of these visits
and discussions was that Mr. Mahomed Ali and Mr. Shaukat Ali
have issued a public pronouncement which, doubtless, you have
seen to-day, expressing their sincere regret for certain speeches
that they had made inciting to violence and have given a solemn
public undertaking that they will not repeat these speeches or
similar speeches so long as they remain associated with Mr.
Gandhi. I do not want to discuss this matter at any length.
I merely refer to it, as showing that the interviews were not
entirely fruitless, because so far as the Government is concerned,
we achieved our immediate object, which was to prevent incite-
ment of violence, which I have had occasion once before to say,
almost always re-acts with fatal effect upon those who are most
innocent. We, as a Government, have a duty to perform. We
have to protect those who may be thus led away and we therefore
had determined to take steps in order to vindicate the law, to
maintain its authority, and to prevent the recurrence of any
further violence. Fortunately, it has not been necessary to
have recourse to the ordinary law of the land for the reason that
we have now got the undertaking to which I have referred. I
certainly shall assume that it is intended to keep that undertaking,
and that the expressions of regret are as sincere as the expressions
seem to denote, and so long as that undertaking is observed we
need not fear that such speeches will recur, and, provided the
undertaking is observed, they too may be sure that there will be
no prosecution for them.

I am thinking at this moment of all the impressions that
India has made upon me and the Indians with whom I have so
much come into contact since my arrival here. May I say
in all earnestness, that whenever I have met an Indian and