Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/349

 statement wtth reference to her whispering to the Princes. I can only say that if I can trust my eyes and my ears, I must adhere to the statement I have made. She occupied a seat on the left of the semi-circle on either side of the Maharaja of Darbhanga, who occu- pied the chair, and there was at least one Prince, per- haps there were two, who were sitting on her side. Whilst I was speaking, Mrs. Besant was almost behind me. When the Maharaja rose Mrs. Besant had also risen. I had ceased speaking before the Rajahs actually left the platform. I gently suggested to her that she might have refrained from interrupting, but that, if she disapproved of the speech after it was finished, she could have then dissociated herself from my sentiments. But she, with some degree of warmth, cried, "How could we sit still when you were compromising every one of us on the platform ? You ought not to have made the remarks you did." This answer of Mrs. Besant's does not quite tally with her solicitude for me, which alone, according to her version of the incident, promoted her to interrupt the speech. I suggest that if she merely meant to protect me she could have passed a note round or whispered into my ears her ndvice. And, again, if it was for my protection, why was it necessary for her to rise with the Princes and to leave the hall as I held she did along with them V

So far as my remarks are concerned, I am yet unable to know what it was in my speech that seems to her to be open to such exception as to warrant her interruption. After referring to the Viceregal visit and the necessary precautions that were taken for the Viceroy's safety, I showed that an assassin's death was anything but an honorable death, and said that anarchism was opposed

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