"Much Sweetness"

In India the Viceroy preserves, if possible, a more regal dignity than George V himself. Men and maharajahs do not sit down in Lord Irwin's presence without his leave, do not speak until the Viceroy has spoken. But last week dignity went by the board when small, brown St. Gandhi clattered up to the Vice-regal Palace at New Delhi in a cheap American automobile and alighted wearing a blanket to which was pinned a dollar watch. As his tiny guest had stipulated, the excessively tall Viceroy met him "as a man, not Viceroy," and St. Gandhi, looking up and up, exclaimed smiling: "My dear friend!"

What Mutt Irwin and Jeff Gandhi said to each other for the next four hours was their secret. No secretary was present. The principals themselves, after gentle insistence by Lord Irwin, scribbled their own notes. Optimism bounded as the midget made a hurried exit, saying: "I am satisfied, even optimistic. But I must hurry. If I don't get home before sundown, I must fast tonight"--for it is Mr. Gandhi's rule to eat but once a day, never at night, and he had taken Lord Irwin on an empty stomach. Twice more, last week, the "friends" met. Once the Viceroy sent around to Mr. Gandhi's lodgings the most tempting gift His Excellency could imagine: a cool jug of the best goat's milk and a bunch of the most luscious hothouse grapes. Mr. Gandhi began sending telegrams to Nationalist leaders all over India saying merely: "Come to me," and they set out. The Executive Committee of the Nationalist Congress unanimously informed St. Gandhi that they would abide absolutely by any decision he might make, thus scotching rumors of a Nationalist split. From St. Gandhi's friend, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, who attended the Indian Conference in London and arranged the Mutt & Jeff meetings, it was learned that last week the Viceroy: 1) Offered to reverse his previous refusal of St. Gandhi's request that British Indian police "brutality" be investigated, and to lift all restrictions upon the activities of Indian Nationalists providing they cease their mass demonstrations for independence.

2) Refused as "impossible" St. Gandhi's demand that, as an evidence of British good faith, the salt laws be suspended at once, terminating the British salt monopoly, and making it possible, among other things, for Indian farmers to lead their cattle down to the sea for a salty drink, which is now illegal.

In a cablegram to the London Daily Herald, St. Gandhi as much as said last-week that he would not accept the Indian Conference-Ramsay MacDonald scheme for "Reserved Dominion Status" under which India's defenses and finances would be under British control.

"If India is to feel the glow of freedom she must have control of her own defense," he cabled. . . . "Nor can I reconcile myself to external control of financial matters."

After his third conference with the Viceroy, the Mahatma said: "The meetings have been conducted with much sweetness. The result is in the hands of God."

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