Mr. Montagu said that the Government of India had been
perfectly free to arrest Mr. Gandhi if it had wanted to do so. A few days ago he had heard from India that the Government had actually issued orders for the arrest. Then came a dramatic change in the situation. " I gather that Mr. Gandhi and his colleagues have decided not to pursue civil disobedience." The difficulty with Mr. Gandhi, we must remark here, is that he continually suspends his orders about civil disobedience but invariably reissues them. It seems to us a tragic farce that when Mr. Gandhi laments some fresh riots or some new massacre or series of murders and declares that he is doing penance by fasting the Government should take him seriously time after time and leave him free to repeat the old process. He may grieve at crime but he none the less instigates it.
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