Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/186

 position accepted at Calcutta and of permanentlj?? shutting out the ' Extremists ' from all future sessions- of the Congress. The Indu Prakash and the Indian: Social Reformer clearly hinted this purpose and the whole conduct of the Moderate leaders all over India in the eventful months of 1907 clearly strengthens this belief. It was the duty of the Moderates and especially that of the Hon. Mr. Gokhale who was entrusted with the work of drafting the resolutions to publicly declare if this belief was incorrect and unfounded.* A list of the headings of the subjects likely to be taken up for discussion by the Surat Congress was of&cicially published a week or ten days before the date of the Congress Sessions. This list did not include the subjects of Self-Go vemment, Boycottp National Education on all of which distinct and sepa- rate resolutions were passed at Calcutta in 1906. This- omission naturally strengthened the suspicion that the. Bombay Moderates really intended to go back from the position taken up by the Calcutta Congress in these matters. The Press strongly commented upon this omission and Mr. Tilak, who reached Surat on the morn- ing of the 23rd December, denounced such retrogres- sion as suicidal in the interests of the countrj^ more, especially at the present juncture, and appealed to the Surat public to help the Nationalists in their endeavours. to maintain at least the status quo in these matters. The next day, a Conference of about five hundred Nationalist Delegates was held at Surat under the Chairmanship of Shrijut Arabindo Ghose, where it was.

8 Pages to the closely-reasoned document published by th©- Nationalist Leaders soon after the break-up of the Congress.
 * We are indebted for the bulk of the contents of the next