The full Congress opened last Saturday and was remarkable for
a violent speech by the President, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was educated at Harrow. He declared that the brief day of European domination was approaching its end. South Africa was not a happy member of the Empire. Nor was the Irish Free State. "Egypt is drifting away." (The Pandit did not say when Egypt became part of the British Empire). The embrace of Empire was not a life-giving embrace- of affection but an embrace of death. The Empire could not be a true Commonwealth so long as Imperialism was its basis, and, the exploitation of other races was its means of sustenance. He himself confessed to being a Socialist Republican. The hereditary Princes of India were the relics of a bygone age, and their vicious system must go. Violence in his view was a confession of despair, but, he added, "If methods of violence will rid us of our slavery then I have no doubt we shall adopt them. Violence is bad, but slavery is far worse." -
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