Mr. Gandhi and his lieutenant, Blinker, were tried at Ahmeda-
bad on Saturday last and pleaded guilty. Gandhi, in_ one of those fantastic speeches which to. the Western mind suggest that he is insane, declared that to preach disaffection had become " almost a passion " with him, and that, though he believed in: " non-violence " and took all the blame her the murderous outrages committed by his followers, he " would still play with fire " if he were released. He was sentenced to- six years' simple imprisonment and his accomplice to a year's imprisonment. His adherents on the Congress Committee declared afterwards that they would carry out his programme of civil disobedience. It is to be observed, however, that the news of the sentence occasioned no disturbances and that the political strikes engineered on Gandhi's behalf are already col- lapsing. The Indian. Government will be respected in pro- . portion as they enforce the law without distinction of persons, as they used to do in.the days before Mr. Montagu ruled at the• India Office.
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