Happily Mr. Montagu made his own reservations. " India was
at the moment not ready. Disaster would await any one who wished to give Home Rule to India to-day. . . . So far as he could discover, the whole of India was opposed to Home Rule now." Mr. Montagu in fact argued that the Report was not offering Home Rule to India, but only the means of preparing the people for Home Rule. In these circumstances it is essential to know what the constitution of the proposed electorates is to be. Tbis is to be determined by Committees appointed in England. All we know so far is that the electorates are to be constituted on the broadest possible basis. We have learned nothing yet as to how it is proposed to safeguard the inarticulate masses against the tyrannical bigotry of the Brahmin political immoderates. The masses are alarmed, and very naturally so. To be indifferent, or to have accommodating consciences, on this point is to be false to the whole of our trusteeship in India.
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