Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/214

 On May 22nd, the following statement was issued over the signatures of Mr. Tilak and 24 leading Nationalists of Maharashtra : —

"We view with deep regret the recent acts of violence on the part of certain young men in Bengal, resulting in lamentable deaths.

"We firmly believe that these regrettable occurances are the result of prolonged and persistent disregard of public opinion and a continued pohcy of repression on the part of the Government, and not as alleged in some quarters of any speeches or writings.

"We are convinced, that the true remedy for the present state of things, lies, not in the adoption of any measures of repression and coercion, which must prove futile, but in the prompt redress of popular grievances and in making liberal concessions to the legitimate demands and aspirations of the people in a spirit of large-minded sympathy and far-sighted statesmanship.

"We hold that such a pohcy of concihation will be in harmony with the best traditions of British Rule in India."

But just as Mr. Tilak and others were convinced that the real cause of these fanatical outbursts lay in the unsympathetic rule of a Bureaucracy, irresponsible to the people of this country, so was the Bureaucracy convinced that it was the agitators whose pernicious writings and speeches had created such a tense situation. They, therefore, set themselves to stamp out the bomb by making penal the mere possession of chemicals re- quired for preparing bombs, by a stringent Press Act and a vigorous hunting of * sedition.* A Press Act was contemplated, but it saw the light of the day a couple