THE ADVICE OF GANDHI.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 308, 29 December 1924, Page 5

THE ADVICE OF GANDHI.

NO QUARTER FOR ENEMY. (Received 10.30 a.m.) DELHI, December 28. At the National Congress, though the pact was ratified overwhelmingly, opposition speakers did not mince words in denouncing it. Gandhi appealed to all to vote in accordance with their sincere convictions in view of the revolutionary character of the proposed change. Mr. C. R. Das, in moving the adoption of the pact, said that the boycott of foreign cloth was their reply to the Government's challenge in Bengal. He reaffirmed that Swarajists had gone to the council in order to give the enemy no quarter, and would attack wherever they could.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) A "Times" Calcutta correspondent recently said: "Mr. Gandhi's vißit to Calcutta has resulted in another capitulation to the Swarajists on the part of the Mahatma. He has signed a pact which carries out the pledge he made not to offer resistance to the Swarajists if they continue to seek to dominate the India National Congress. Documents have been issued signed by Mr. Gandhi, Mr. C. R. Das, and the Pandit Motilal Nehru, recommending, with a view to finding a common platform, the suspen- 1 sion of the programme of non-co-opera- j tion except for the refusal to wear cloth made outside India. It has further been decided that the work of encouraging hand-spinning, promoting Hindu-Moslem unity, and the removal of 'untouchability' should be carried on in the Legislatures by the Swaraj party as an integral part of the Congress organisation. "An even more pathetic abnegation is registered in the concluding clause of the pact, which makes the wearing of khaddar (home-spun cloth) compulsory only on ceremonial occasions such as political and congress functions, and permits the delegation of the duty of spinning 2000 yards of yarn monthly to another person 'in case of illness, unwillingness, or any such cause.' Truly, nothing is now left of non-co-operation but the name, and Mr. Gandhi has completely thrown over the advocates of no change. "In return for this surrender, Mr. Das and the Calcutta Corporation organised a great civic reception for the Mahatma, who, in the presence of a vast crowd numbering tens of thousands, received an address of welcome on the steps of the Calcutta Town Hall. The crowd everywhere was orderly, and the demonstration was an impressive spectacle. In a reply, which bodily frailty compelled him to read sitting and in almost inaudible accents, Mr. Gandhi linked condemnation of the new Bengal ordinances with denunciation of anarchical crime. He said: 'My views on anarchical activities are well known. T am opposed to them with my whole soul, and I do not believe they can do good to India. I detest the extraordinary measures adopted by the Government just as much as I detest anarchical activities'."