Surendranath Banerjea’s death

IT is with the deepest regret that we announce the death of Sir Surendranath Banerjea at his Barrackpur residence. It is only yesterday morning that we learnt from a Calcutta telegram that he was suffering from an attack of influenza. The telegram described the attack as slight, but before we went to press, there came another telegram which described his condition as critical. In the case of a man aged 77, illness like this has usually only one end, but such was our faith in Sir Surendranath’s vitality that we still hoped for the best. Now, alas, there is no room for hope left, and while the terrible shock inflicted upon the motherland by the death of Deshbandhu CR Das is still fresh, she is once again plunged in grief over the death of another son as dearly beloved in the prime of his life as Deshbandhu was in his, and who until some years ago had held as conspicuous a position in the public life of his country as it is given to any man to fill in a subject country. It is, indeed, the literal truth to say that for many years, Sir Surendranath had been looked upon as a veritable institution in India, as William Gladstone was looked upon as an institution in his time and country, embodying all that was best and strongest in its public life and political aspirations, an undaunted warrior who knew no greater pleasure than that of fighting his country’s constitutional battle for constitutional liberty, a hero of literally a hundred fights, with many victories to his credit and many defeats even more glorious than victories.