over Russia, the facing of a huge European Power by a comparatively
small Eastern Nation, the exposure of the weakness and rottenness of the
Russian leaders, and the contrast with their hardy virile opponents,
ready to sacrifice everything for their country.

The second great shock has come from the frank brutality of German
theories of the State, and their practical carrying out in the treatment
of conquered districts and the laying waste of evacuated areas in
retreat. The teachings of Bismarck and their practical application in
France, Flanders, Belgium, Poland, and Serbia have destroyed all the
glamour of the superiority of Christendom over Asia. Its vaunted
civilisation is seen to be but a thin veneer, and its religion a matter
of form rather than of life. Gazing from afar at the ghastly heaps of
dead and the hosts of the mutilated, at science turned into devilry and
ever inventing new tortures for rending and slaying, Asia may be
forgiven for thinking that, on the whole, she prefers her own religions
and her own civilisations.

But even deeper than the outer tumult of war has pierced the doubt as to
the reality of the Ideals of Liberty and Nationality so loudly
proclaimed by the foremost western Nations, the doubt of the honesty of
their champions. Sir James Meston said truly, a short time ago, that he
had never, in his long experience, known Indians in so distrustful and
suspicious a mood as that which he met in them to-day. And that is so.
For long years Indians have been chafing over the many breaches of
promises and pledges to them that remain unredeemed. The maintenance
here of a system of political repression, of coercive measures increased
in number and more harshly applied since 1905, the carrying of the
system to a wider extent since the War for the sanctity of treaties and
for the protection of Nationalities has been going on, have deepened the