Page:Report on the Memorial Meeting for Mahatma Gandhi.djvu/11



“It has been said that this is the age of violence and that ironic though it was for the man of non-violence to meet his end by the hand of an assassin, it followed the pattern of our day. But that is not so. Every age has been an age of disturbance and destructiveness. But not entirely, no, never entirely, because now and then men, pure of heart, and clean, selfless and endowed with grace, have arisen to take with them on their journey through life followers in the path of peace. These are the men who when they shed their mortal lives leave behind them a world a little bit closer to the good and the true — men like Buddha, Confucious, Moses, St. Brands of Assisi, Lincoln. With this royalty Gandhi is forever joined.”

JEAN-WILLY FOURNIER DE MONTOUSSE. Representative of France to the Security Council of the United Nations:

“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I only wish to associate myself in very few words to everything which has just been said about Mahatma Gandhi, and the grief which spread over all the world at the tragic news of his death. The sacrifice of this great apostle is a cruel loss, not only for India, his own country for which he fought his whole life, but also for the whole of mankind.

“The French Government and the people of France send, through me, their deepest condolence to the government and the people of India for the irreparable loss which it has just had in one of the greatest and noblest figures in the history of mankind.”

FARTS BL-KHOURY. Representative of Syria to the Security Council of the United Nations:

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is superfluous for me or any other speaker to introduce the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi to any audience over the whole world. The 20th century has produced so many big names who have