Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/104

 including Mr. Alfred Webb M.P., Mr. Hart Davies M. Mr. C. J. O'Donnell M.P., Dr. Rutherford M.P., Mr.' Mackarness M.P., Mr. Philip Morrell M.P., Mr. O'Grady M.P. (as representing the Labour Party), and Mr. A. M. Scott M.P. Some of those who co-operated most actively with the Committee, such as Sir Charles Dilke, and Mr. Samuel Smith, preferred not to join, on the ground that they would be able to work more effectively in the House of Commons for India without being members of an outside Committee.

Now as regards the success of the work undertaken by the British Committee, it must be borne in mind that the chief difficulty in England for those seeking justice to India, arises from the antagonism of the India Office, where the Council of the Secretary of State has always been the stronghold of reactionary officialdom. As Mr. Hume put it, the India Office is "an organization per- petually employed in popularizing the official view of all Indian questions," and if Indian grievances are to be remedied, this hostile influence must be met — in Par- liament, on the Platform, and in the Press — by "an organization equally persistent and strenuous in dissemi- nating the people's view of these same questions." This therefore was the task before Mr. Hume and his friends; and they sought to fulfil each of these duties — as regards Parliament, by organizing an Indian Parliamentary Com- mittee ; as regards the Platform, by arranging public meetings throughout the country ; and as regards the Press, by founding the journal India as an organ of Congress views. Each of these enterprizes must here be described a little in detail.

The Indian Parliamentary Committee. It is in Parliament that vital issues are decided ; and as few Indian readers are familiar with the technicalities