Convincing reply by CR Das

CR Das has given as sincere, and, subject to one reservation, as cogent and well-reasoned and, indeed, as convincing a reply to Lord Birkenhead’s answering “gesture” as it was possible for anyone to give. “I invite Mr Das”, said Lord Birkenhead in his speech in the House of Lords in reply to Das’ statement on the subject of revolutionary violence, “to take a further step. He has publicly dissociated himself from political assassination and violence in any form. I ask him to go forward and cooperate with the Government in repressing the violence he deprecates.” Das, in his reply, gives conclusive reasons why he cannot accept Lord Birkenhead’s invitation. “My answer to his lordship’s invitation”, he says, “is this: If I were satisfied that the Bengal Act would finally eradicate the evil which is eating into our national system, I would unhesitatingly support the Government. I am not so satisfied. It is not because I would not prevent political crimes, even if I could do so; but because I entertain a deep-rooted conviction that without the Government meeting us more than half-way, all my efforts in this direction will fail to achieve their object; and though I think that a favourable atmosphere has been created for further discussion, I am unable to cooperate with the Government in its present policy of repression.” If one were so minded, one might here point out that Das is really going farther than he might or, indeed, ought to have done. None of us believes at the present time in the supposed Jesuitical doctrine — a doctrine, by the way, which the Jesuits themselves have again and again indignantly repudiated — of the end justifying the means.