Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/110

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usefully be taken in the new Parliament to advance the interests of the Indian people." Mr. Leonard Courtne (now Lord Courtney) presided at the Conference, an opened the proceedings; and speeches were made by M Schwann M.P., Mr. ]. M. Robertson M.P., Lord Wear- dale, Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. Herbert Roberts M.P., Sir Henry Cotton M.P., Mr. Pickersgill M.P., Mr. J. A. Bright M.P., Mr. H. Nuttall M.P., Mr. C. J. O'Donnell M.P., Sir George Robertson M.P., Mr. Byles M.P., Mr. Hastings Duncan M.P., Mr. Hume, Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, and Sir W. Wedderburn. Resolutions in pursuance of the objects of the meeting were passed unanimously ; the Indian Parliamentary Committee was duly reconstituted ; and eventually nearly two hundred Members of Parlia- ment became members of the Committee..

The Journal "India."

Next as regards propaganda in the Press. Indian reformers should bear in mind that without a recognized organ in the Press no cause has in England any chance of success. Whether the cause is Temperance or Free Trade, Land Reform, Irish Nationalism, or Female Suffrage, all reformers find it indispensable to be well represented in the Press, and spend large sums annually with this object. But as regards India the need is far greater, (i) because the subject of Indian grievances is unfamiliar, and distasteful to the national vanity of " the man in the street " ; (2) because in the London Press articles on Indian subjects are mainly supplied by Anglo- Indians unfavourable to Indian aspirations ; and (3) because there are no Indian electors to bring pressure upon Parhament and the Government. If India ceases to have an organ in the Press of this country, she will be held to have abandoned her appeal to the British public