Turning to the question of sedition and violence in India,
the Master of Elibank declared that it was not true that the Government had vacillated between concession and coercion. There would be no sort of supineness in dealing with anarchism. "It is essential that it should be brought home to the agitators that it is the deliberate intention of this country to maintain order, and that they will be removed, if necessary, from the sphere of their mischievous activity until the Government of India considers it in the public interest to revise its decision." When the people of a country refused to help the authorities in the suppression of crime, it was evident that normal government broke down. Exceptional methods must be employed, or government must be abandoned alto- gether. This principle had been very clearly stated by John Stuart Mill, and he accepted it. The Government had done right- to maintain order in the only possible way, for order was the fundamental condition of progress. "Of this we on this bench are convinced, and it is well that it should be under- stood both here and in India." Finally, the Master of Elibank announced that a Committee had been appointed to consider how to befriend Indian students in England.
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