Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/748

 658 NON-CO-OPERATION

regarding the method of Non-Co-operation, the freedom of the people was a common heritage and that the assertion of that right was three-fourths of Sv;araj ; that therefore they would defend that right even witrT civil disobedience, if need be.

However, as the attention of the Conference could not be rivetted on that point but on a Round Table Conference, the discussion turned upon the essentials of such a conference.

My own position \vas clear. I would attend any conference as an individual, without any conditions. My purpose as a reformer is to convert people to the view I hold to be right and therefore to see everybody who would care to listen to me. But when I was asked to mention the conditions necessary for an atmosphere favourable for a successful conference, I had to press some certain conditions. And I must own that the Resolutions Committee approached my viewpoint with the greatest sympathy and showed every anxiety to accommodate me. But side by side with this, I observed an admirable disposition on its part to consider the Government's difficulties. Indeed the Government's case could not have been better presented, if it had been directly and officially represented in the Conference.

The result was a compromise. The withdrawal of notification and the discharge of prisoners coming under the notifications and of the fatwa prisoners, i.e., the Ali Brothers and others who have been convicted in respect of the fatwas regarding military service, was common cause. The Committee saw the force of the suggestions that the distress wtftrants should be dis- charged, the fines imposed upon the Press, etc., should be refunded and that the prisoners convicted for non-

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