sure, therefore, that the description of a "paid pack" is the very last that can ever be applied to Rai Bahadur Narendra Nath Sen. At the same time I must say that the Rai Bahadur has undertaken a task which is beyond the power of any human being. If the Government are anxious that misrepresentations of their acts and intentions, which, from time to time, appear in the Vernacular Press, should be corrected promptly-a desire which I can understand and with which I largely sympathise-whatever other course might be effective, this certainly is not an effective course. Far better that the Government should have an organ of its own, an open State organ conducted out of State funds and issued as a State publication. Or there are other possible ways, to one of which I will presently refer. But the course actually adopted by the Bengal Government is about the worst that could have been adopted, and I am quite sure that it will be found to be absolutely ineffective in practice. However high may be the character or the motives of a man who comes forward to conduct a subsidized paper, there can be no question about the fact that so far as the bulk of the readers, i.e., of the public, is concerned, there will always be an impression that the opinion expressed in the paper is not an independent opinion. And in the present case, for one man who knows Rai Narendra Nath Sen Bahadur personally, 99 will only judge him from appearances. When it is known that the paper depends for its existence upon a large subsidy from the Government no further proof will be required by most people to discredit the paper and, along with the paper, all that appears in it.

I have said, Sir, that I can quite understand the desire of the Government that they should have a few friends at least in the ranks of the Vernacular Presspapers that will give them fair play, papers that will assume the best, till the worst is proved. I quite recognise that situations sometimes arise when this desire may be strongly felt by the Government. But I am firmly convinced that the only way in which a real remedy can be found for such a state of things is by working for a general improvement in the situation of the country. Some of the reme

dies proposed, from time to time, may go some way. A State paper, for instance. Such a paper would have certain advantages over a subsidised paper conducted by a private individual. As my Hon'ble friend Babu Bupendranath Basu has pointed out, how are the opinions of a subsidised paper to be regarded? Nobody will think that the opinions there have the weight which would be attached to a pronouncement from Government; for it will always be doubted if the editor of such a paper would be really taken by the Government into its confidence. Then there will be views about social questions and religious questions, about which Government is bound to observe an attitude of neutrality. Even in political matters, the paper will not represent the views of Government. Rai Narendra Nath Sen Bahadur, for instance, is not the man who will conceal his views where he feels strongly. Are the Government prepared to accept the responsibility for the views which he expresses? If not, why should the Government come forward and spend Rs. 62,000 in supporting a paper, the social and religious views of which it cannot accept and the political views of which it may not be prepared to accept? As I have already observed, far better that the Government should issue a State publication of its own. Then it will at least avoid all religious and social questions; it will also avoid ordinary political controversies. Whenever it notices misrepresentations about its intentions in the Press, it will correct these misrepresentations and the public will know authoritatively what the Government have to say.

But, Sir, there is another way, which perhaps would be better than a direct State organ. The Government might,without directly coming into the field, get some of its more pronounced friends or champions to undertake the work. There is, I understand, a body here, called the 'Imperial League,' of which my friend, the Maharaja of Burdwan, is a distinguished member. The other day, when this body waited in deputation on the Viceroy, His Excel. lency made a suggestion that the members should not confine themselves merely to presenting addresses to departing and incoming Viceroys. And I am quite sure that the

members themselves take the same view of their responsibilities. And they would, no doubt, be glad to come to the support of Government, especially when a serious question like this has to be solved. Many of the members of the League are very wealthy men, and, if a suggestion were made to them, it is more than probable that they would come forward to start an organ of their own-an organ that would actively combat the views that are circulated in a section of the Vernacular Press. The paper will, of course, represent the views of certain wealthy gentlemen in the country only, but they will be men who have a stake in the country, as we are often reminded, and their views will be free from all those objections which may be urged against a subsidised paper, since there will be no Government money behind it. I think in many respects this would be a far more effective course to take than either a directly subsidised paper or even a State organ. But, when all this is said, I really do not believe that any of the courses will really achieve anything very much. The attitude of the Vernacular Press, deplorable as it may at times be, depends largely on a number of circumstances. For one thing, the normal relations between the English and the Indians in the country determine it; and the special questions which for the moment may happen to agitate the public mind also largely influence it. And then there are the writings in the columns of the Anglo-Indian Press. What happens very often is that writers in the Vernacular Press take up the articles or attacks in the Anglo-Indian papers and reply to them. The officials, who read these replies, apply them to themselves, because the writers in the Vernacular Press often express themselves generally against Europeans as such, taking the Anglo-Indian Press to represent European views. And the real remedy for this state of things is neither a subsidised paper, nor a State paper, nor even a private organ, specially started by influential men, but a sustained and statesmanlike effort on both sides to bring about a general improvement in the relations between Englishmen and Indians in India. But whatever may be thought of this view, there is no question that the Bengal Government have made a great mistake, and I earnestly

hope that a similar mistake will not be made by other Governments. Bengal has been fortunate in getting Rai Bahadur Narendra Nath Sen to undertake the work. Those who know him will not need to be told that he will not express any opinion which he does not himself hold. But other Governments may not be equally fortunate. They may choose individuals for the task who have not the same prestige and the same qualifications as Mr. Sen possesses and the result then may be most mischievous.

EXCISE COTTON DUTIES.

[On 9th March 1911, the Hon'ble Mr. Dadabhoy moved a Resolution in the Imperial Legislative Council recommenting the abolition of the countervailing excise duty upon cotton goods manufactured in India. Mr. Gokhale, in supporting the Resolution, spoke as follows :—]

Sir, I rise to accord my support to the resolution which my Hon'ble friend Mr. Dadabhoy has moved, though I do so on grounds somewhat different to those on which he and some of the other speakers who have followed him have based their case. I approach this question, Sir, not from the standpoint of the representatives of the mill industry but from that of a member of the general community. It is well known that when these excise duties were imposed about fifteen years ago, there was a feeling of deep and universal indignation throughout the country, and this indignation was caused by four reasons. Those reasons have been well brought out by the Hon'ble Mr. Dadabhoy in his able speech, and I will, therefore, refer to them only very briefly. The first reason was that the mill industry was at that time in a state of continued depression. The second was that the industry had been hit hard for the time, at any rate, by the currency legislation of the Government. The third was that the duties were imposed not because the Government of India or the Secretary of State thought it desirable to impose them, but because Lancashire dictated that these duties should be so imposed; and the Government of India made no secret that they were not a willing party to that transaction. Lastly it was believed that the action of Lancashire in putting pressure on the Secretary of State, and through him on the Government of India, to impose those duties was due not to the fact that there was any real competition between Lancashire and India, but because Lancashire, already uneasy at the strides the mill industry had made in this country, wanted to handicap that