Das-Lytton negotiations

THE first thought that is provoked by a perusal of the elaborate statement in which Pandit Motilal Nehru has just given a final and conclusive reply to the Bengalee correspondent is that if the object of the latter was to put an abrupt end to the so-called negotiations in which Lord Lytton was engaged with the leader of the Swaraj party, he has very nearly succeeded in that object. Lord Lytton is too shrewd, too experienced and, we believe, too fair-minded a person not to see that so far as the leaders of the Swaraj party, past and present, are concerned, he has nothing to complain of. CR Das treated His Excellency’s communications exactly as they deserved to be treated, and while he was alive, not a soul, with the exception of one or two of his political friends or allies, who had every right to share his secret, knew anything about them. And now that he is gone, both his successor to the all-India leadership of the party and his successor to the leadership of the Bengal branch of the party have worthily maintained his policy. They made no public reference whatever to the so-called negotiations until they had been forced to do so, and even then they have not said a word too much, a word which either Lord Lytton himself or anyone else can say is inconsistent with a proper appreciation of the delicate nature of the communications that had for some time before Das’ death been going on between him and the late Governor of Bengal. But the present is exactly one of those matters in which the premature publication of what has been going on behind the curtains is calculated to make it difficult for either or both parties to carry on the conversations, irrespective of who is or is not responsible for such publication.