Mr. Gandhi's Fast The potency of Mr. Gandhi's fasts is
alarming. All, this time, has ended well ; not only did the Mahatma break his fast on the fourth day, but he did so as result of a letter from the Viceroy which had the effect of establishing very cordial relations between them ; but all might have ended very ill. If the fast had proved fatal, as it soon would have according to the doctors, the whole reform scheme would have been imperilled, and the whole relationship between Britain and the Hindu population of India disastrously affected. And that would have happened quite irrespective of the justice of Mr. Gandhi's cause. In this case, indeed, he would seem to have been more in the wrong than in the right, for in pressing constitutional reforms on the Thakor Saheb, or Ruler, of the small State of Rajkot, with a popula- tion of some 300,000, Mr. Gandhi has claimed that the Praia Parishad, the organisation conducting political agitation in the State, shall have the right to appoint five of the eight members of the reforms committee. The Thakor Saheb rejoins that he never agreed, and could not agree, to that, and fortunately Mr. Gandhi, after initiating a fast in protest, has assented to the Viceroy's wise suggestion that the interpretation of the alleged agreement shall be entrusted to the Chief Justice of India, Sir Maurice Gwyer. Mr. Gandhi is to go to Delhi to sec Lord Linlithgow when his health permits, and it is to be hoped that a fruitful personal understanding between the two may be established.
