Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/94

74 nant obstinacy they continued their activities against Mr. Tilak, chiefly through a newspaper subsidized by the Reception Committee. There is no knowing how the unpleasantness of the situation would have been aggravated had not the Hon'ble Mr. Surendranath Banerjea, President-elect of the Congress, himself a staunch Social Reformer, set matters right. He requested Mr. Ranade not to press the question of the Social Conference. He even threw out broad hints that if the disputes at Poona could not be amicably settled he would refuse to preside. This courageous and statesmanlike conduct compelled Mr. Ranade to be reasonable and to make a belated declaration that he would not try to hold the Social Conference in the Congress pavilion. Had he made the declaration earlier and on his own initiative, his reputation for statesmanship would have been redeemed; but his declaration made practically under compulsion, together with the continuance by his minions of their disingenuous tactics kept the situation almost unchanged. The offer of cooperation, repeatedly made by Mr. Tilak was spumed. The Reformers, conscious of their own unpopularity were afraid to bear the light of the day. And yet a public meeting to elect Poona delegates was to be held. Bowing to the inevitable, they convened a public meeting (20th December). The hall selected for the purpose was very small and the announcement of the meeting was made very late, presumably to outwit Mr. Tilak' s partisans. But long before the time of the meeting the opponents of the Reformers, alert as ever had packed the hall. With a clever manoeuvre they elected their own president. This perplexed the Reformers and as a mark