The Indian National Congress, attended by two thousand delegates and
visitors, opened at Madras on Monday. Dr. Rash Behari Ghose in his presidential address expressed he gratitude of the nation for the policy of Lord Morley, Wgile strongly. disapproving of the partition of Bengal as likely to imperil the effect of the projected reforms, he condemned the action of the extremists, and declared that whatever might be its future destiny, "the progress and development of India depend on our genuine co-operation with the British Govern- ment." Deprecating repressive legislation as calculated to drive discontent beneath the surface, he admitted that temporary measures might be necessary, though anarchism was bound to die. "British suzerainty could not be shaken by a few flasks of picric acid or a few pounds of gunpowder." He hoped that a future president of the Congress would be able to congratulate the country on the attainment of Colonial self- government; but that was a very distant ideal. They must fight for immediately realisable aims with m conviction that a just cause could never fail with the people of Great Britain.
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