Prospects of unity

Lahore, Tuesday, November 25, 1924

IT is with the sincerest pleasure that we learn from an Associated Press telegram that the prospects of Liberal reunion with the Congress were brighter on Saturday than ever before. “Friday’s discussions in the committee over the drafting of the resolution on the Bengal Ordinance,” says the telegram, “are understood to have been very friendly and are interpreted as bringing all parties nearer. Mrs Annie Besant herself, though opposed to the Bengal Ordinance resolution, is believed to be hopeful of reunion. She expects that the unity resolution will not take very much time.” Whether this was too optimistic a forecast, we shall probably know before the end of the day. One thing, at any rate, is certain. The deliberations of the committee and of the conference were carried on in the friendliest and most conciliatory atmosphere, so far as the Swarajists and No-changers on the one hand and the Liberals on the other were concerned. This, judging from the account before us and partly reading between the lines of that account, was in no small measure due to two facts. One was the election of Mr Sastri as Chairman of the conference. The manner in which he appears to have conducted the proceedings left nothing to be desired on the score of fairness or impartiality. The other fact was the active participation of Mr CY Chintamani in the deliberations of both the committee and the conference. He is one of those men, of whom there are not too many in India or elsewhere, who know their minds and having once made up their minds may be trusted not to leave any stone unturned in order to do it thoroughly. Whether unity will be an accomplished fact still remains to be seen.