Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/298

 to cope with the problem of a growing feeling of nationality, by no means inimical to British Ascendancy. And this persistance in this mistake was shared by the Government of India also! They did not interfere until their attention was drawn to it by a Radical Secretary of State—who succeeded to the office vacated by a conservative nerveless politician under whose general sanction the measures had been taken.

All these Sir Subramaniem foresaw excepting the change at the India office and the reversal of the mistake in consequence of it. After the internment, he was certain that the step could not have been taken without the warrant of the Government of India and the approval of the Secretary of State. All protests seemed like a howl in a desert. It was even doubted whether they would be permitted to reach the Prime Minister—when inland telegrams were held up in this very country. There were many who believed that it was a policy of jam and cane, of repression and enlargement of liberties hand in hand, and that the cane had been first applied to obtain silence during f the time the jam was to be distributed. That meant of