Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/190

 ance from any responsible official of the Congress about the maintenance of the Status quo being obtained, Mr^ Tilak sent a slip to Babu Surendranath,initimatingthat he should not make the proposed allusion to Lala Lajpat Rai in his speech. He also requested Mr. Malvi to supply him with a copy of the draft resolutions, if ready, and about 3. p.m. he got it, though the reporter of the Advocate of India got it on the previous day.

The Congress opened with the address of Mr. Malvi, the Chairman of the Reception Committee. After the address was over, Dewan Bahadur Ambalal Sakarlal proposed Dr. Ghose to the Chair in a speech, which, though evoking occasional cries of dissent, was heard' to the end. The declaration by the Dewan Bahadur as well as by Mr. Malvi that the proposing and second- ing of the resolution to elect the President was only a formal matter, led many to believe that it was not im- probable that the usual procedure of taking votes on the proposition might be dispensed with. And when Babu Surendranath, whose rising on the platform seems to have reminded many of the Midnapur Con- ference where he was instrumental in getting the Na- tionalist party headed by Srij. Arabindo Ghose practi- cally ejected with Police aid, commenced his speech, there was persistent shouting and he was asked to sit down. In spite of his numerous efforts, he could not go on and so the Session had to be suspended for the day. It is unjust to suggest that this hostile demons- tration was pre-arranged by the Nationalists as what they had decided to do was silently and solidly to vote against the election.

At about 8 P.M., the late Mr. Chunilal Saraya, Mana-