Editor:  The causes that gave them India enable them to retain it.  Some Englishmen state that they took, and they hold, India by the sword.  Both these statements are wrong.  The sword is entirely useless for holding India.  We alone keep them.  Napoleon is said to have described the English as a nation of shop keepers.  It is a fitting description.  They hold whatever dominions they have for the sake of their commerce.  Their army and their navy are intended to protect it.  When the Transvaal offered no such attractions, the late Mr. Gladstone discovered that it was no right for the English to hold it.  When it became a paying proposition, resistance led to war.  Mr. Chamberlain soon discovered that England enjoyed a suzerainty over the Transvaal.  It is related that some one asked the late President Kruger whether there was gold in the moon?  He replied that it was highly unlikely, because, if there were, the English would have annexed it.  Many problems can be solved by remembering that money is their God.  Then it follows that we keep the English in India for our base self-interest.  We like their commerce, they please us by their subtle methods, and get what they want from us.  To blame them for this is to perpetuate their power.  We further strengthen their hold by quarrelling amongst ourselves.  If you accept the above statements, it is proved that the English entered India for the purposes of trade.  They remain in it for the same purpose, and we help them to do so.  Their arms and ammunition are perfectly useless.  In this connection, I remind you that it is the British flag which is waving in Japan, and not the Japanese.  The English have a treaty with Japan for the sake of their commerce and you will see that, if they can manage it, their commerce will greatly expand in that country.  They wish to convert the whole word into a vast market for their goods.  That they cannot do so is true, but the blame will not be theirs.  They will leave no stone unturned to reach the goal.

SWARAJ MY IDEAL

The following is a fairly full report of Mr. Gandhi’s important speech at Calcutta on the 13th December 1920:—­

The very fact, that so many of you cannot understand Hindi which is bound to be the National medium of expression throughout Hindustan in gatherings of Indians belonging to different parts of the land, shows the depth of the degradation to which we have sunk, and points to the supreme necessity of the non-co-operation movement which is intended to lift us out of that condition.  This Government has been instrumental in degrading this great nation in various ways, and it is impossible to be free from it without co-operation amongst ourselves which is in turn impossible without a national medium of expression.