Lord Birkenhead's opportunity

IF Lord Birkenhead was sincere in his invitation to CR Das to go forward and cooperate with the Government, the reply which the latter has given to his “answering gesture” and the intentions with which he is credited by the Statesman of Calcutta, which appears to have taken particular pains to ascertain his views, afford his lordship an opportunity such as comes but seldom in the life of a statesman in office. In his published statement, Mr Das, while pointing out why he cannot cooperate with the Government in the pursuit of its policy of repression makes it perfectly clear that he is prepared to cooperate with the Government on honourable terms. In the statement attributed to him by the Statesman, he appears to have gone farther and explained what he means by these honourable terms. “It is believed”, writes the journal, “that Das favours the dissolution of the Council and expresses confidence that this will result in the return of a Swarajist majority, in which case the party would be willing to accept office, not with a view to wrecking the reforms, but to doing constructive work on certain conditions. These are understood to be, in general, full responsibility for ministers and that the ordinance should be, at any rate, held in abeyance.” As regards the release of political detenus, the journal does not appear to have succeeded in eliciting a full expression of Das’ view, but it presumes that “he will be prepared to draw a distinction according to the gravity of the offences with which particular individuals are charged.”