rial of the subject to refuse to assist a
ruler who misrules.

At the same time I admit that non-co-operation practised by the mass of
people is attended with grave risks. But, in a crisis such as has
overtaken the Mussalmans of India, no step that is unattended with large
risks, can possibly bring about the desired change. Not to run some
risks now will be to court much greater risks if not virtual destruction
of Law and Order.

But there is yet an escape from non-co-operation. The Mussalman
representation has requested your Excellency to lead the agitation
yourself, as did your distinguished predecessor at the time of the South
African trouble. But if you cannot see your way to do so, and
non-co-operation becomes a dire necessity, I hope that your Excellency
will give those who have accepted my advice and myself the credit for
being actuated by nothing less than a stern sense of duty.

I have the honour to remain,

Your Excellency's faithful servant,

(Sd.) M.K. GANDHI.

Laburnam Road, Gamdevi, Bombay

22nd June 1920

THE PREMIER'S REPLY

The English mail has brought us a full and official report of the
Premier's speech which he recently made when he received the Khilafat
deputation. Mr. Lloyd George's speech is more definite and therefore
more disappointing than H.E. the Viceroy's reply to the deputation here.
He draws quite unwarranted deductions from the same high principles on
which he had based his own pledge only two years ago. He declares that
Turkey must pay the penalty of defeat. This determination to punish
Turkey does not become one whose immediate predecessor had, in order to
appease Muslim soldiers, promised that the British Government had no
designs on Turkey and that His Majesty's Government would never think of
punishing the Sultan for the misdeeds of the Turkish Committee. Mr.
Lloyd George has expressed his belief that the majority of the
population of Turkey did not really want to quarrel with Great Britain
and that their rulers misled the country. In spite of this conviction
and in spite of Mr. Asquith's promise, he is out to punish Turkey and
punish it in the name of justice.

He expounds the principle of self-determination and justifies the scheme
of depriving Turkey of its territories one after another. While
justifying this scheme he does not exclude even Thrace and this strikes
the reader most, because this very Thrace he had mentioned in his pledge
as predominantly Turkish. Now