"Any scheme that does not fully provide for this and secure full autonomous power for the provinces and falls short of the irreducible minimum put forth in the Congress-League scheme stands self-condemned and will totally fail to meet the wishes and requirements of the people and win their support."
But now he is urging the people of this country to support a scheme which may fall short of his ideal and he says even if it is not satisfactory we should accept it. Even on the 29th of November he says:
"Any tinkering reform of a patch-work kind will not avail to meet the necessities of the situation but will rather intensify the present difficulties."
Gentlemen, I will not weary you with any more extracts but I will quote just two passages, for which I hope you will pardon me (go on, go on).
SURENDRANATH OF DECEMBER, 1917.
On December 1st, Mr. Surendranath Banerjea says:
"Nothing less will satisfy the people of India or redeem the honour of England.... Real power must be given to us. No shams or delusions will satisfy us. We have had enough of them.... None of that taking away with the one hand what is given with the other."
Then on the 2nd of December, he says:
"Let it be clearly understood that the Congress-League scheme represents the irreducible minimum which admits of no curtailment here or excision there and then which no more moderate demand can be conceived under the circumstances."
It seems to me, gentlemen, that a scheme more moderate than the Congress League scheme can be conceived and Mr. Surendranath Banerjea of to-day has conceived that (laughter). Then on December 12th, he says: