Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/197

 the force of it. He was quite amenable to the logic of the situation and willingly co-operated with Mr. Tilak and Mrs. Besant, as Mr. Tilak himself admits in his statement, in coming to an understanding on both sides that the success of the compromise depended not so much upon Mr. Gokhale's willingness but entirely upon the acceptance of the terms of the compromise by the conventionist leaders in the city of Bombay. The difficult task of winning over these people was assigned to Mr. N. Subba Rau. Mr. Subba Rau found that the Bombay conventionist leaders were dead opposed to the extention of the franchise to public meetings or to independent constituencies and that they felt great apprehension that the Congress would be running a great risk if Mr. Tilak and his followers came in. The fear was probably very real in their minds. To rely again upon the statement issued from the Servant of India Society.

"It is their (Nationalists') intention to take steps to widen the door of election as before to all public meetings if necessary, and get recognition of their methods by educating public opinion and working for and securing a majority in the Congress if possible. They