of a free and contented people, rather than be dependent on the
continued friendship of a possible future rival. For international
friendships are governed by National interests, and are built on
quicksands, not on rock.

Englishmen in India must give up the idea that English dominance is
necessary for the protection of their interests, amounting, in 1915, to
£365,399,000 sterling. They do not claim to dominate the United States
of America, because they have invested there £688,078,000. They do not
claim to dominate the Argentine Republic, because they have invested
there £269,808,000. Why then should they claim to dominate India on the
ground of their investment? Britons must give up the idea that India is
a possession to be exploited for their own benefit, and must see her as
a friend, an equal, a Self-Governing Dominion within the Empire, a
Nation like themselves, a willing partner in the Empire, and not a
dependent. The democratic movement in Japan, China and Russia in Asia
has sympathetically affected India, and it is idle to pretend that it
will cease to affect her.

DISCUSSIONS ABROAD ON ALIEN RULE AND IMPERIAL RECONSTRUCTION.

But there are other causes which have been working in India, consequent
on the British attitude against autocracy and in defence of freedom in
Europe, while her attitude to India has, until lately, been left in
doubt. Therefore I spoke of a splendid opportunity lost. India at first
believed whole-heartedly that Great Britain was fighting for the freedom
of all Nationalities. Even now, Mr. Asquith declared--in his speech in
the House of Commons reported here last October, on the peace resolution
of Mr. Ramsay Macdonald--that "the Allies are fighting for nothing but
freedom, and, an important addition--for nothing short of freedom." In