ON THE EVE OF ARREST.
��IF I AM ARRESTED."
��[For months past the rumour of Mr. Gandhi's inpending arrest was in the air. Expecting the inevitable Mr. Gandhi had more than once written his final message. But in the first week of March the rumour became more widespread and intense. The stiffen- ning of public opinion in England and Mr. Montagu's threat- ening speech in defence of his Indian policy in the Commons, revealed the fact that the Secretary of State had already sanction ed Mr. Gandhi's prosecution. Chauri Chaura and the Delhi decisions were presumably the immediate cause of Government's action on Mr. Gandhi. Realising that his arrest would not long be deferred, Mr. Gandhi wrote the following message in the Young India of March 9 :]
The rumour has been revived that my arrest is imminent. It is said to be regarded as a mistake by some officials that I was not arrested when I was to be, &?., on the llth or 12th of February and that the Bardoli decision ought not to 'have been allowed to affect the Government's programme. It is said, too, that it is now no longer possible for the Government to withstand the ever rising agitation in London for my arrest and deportation. I myself cannot see how the Government can avoid arresting me if they want a permanent abandonment of civil disobedience whether individual or mass.
I advised the Working Committee to suspend mass civil disobedience at Bardoli because that disobedience would not have been civil, and if I am now advising all provincial workers to suspend even individual civil
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