LORD MORLEY AND THE MOSLEMS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 469, 30 March 1909, Page 5

LORD MORLEY AND THE MOSLEMS.

« Lord Morley, Secretary for India, received at tho India Oflico recently, a doputation of Indian Moslems, who sought to obtain some modification of tho reforms laid boforo Parliament with a view to securing for Moslems representation on the councils adequate to their numbers and importance. Beyd Ameer Ali introduced tho deputation and expressed general satisfaction with the effort to extend tho representative system in India. Lord Morley described tho position in India as most hopeful, and declared that no sign or whisper reached him that any responsible man or group had any desire to wreck tho Bchemo of reforms. "Wo-could not have a better sign that statesmen abroad are watching use with interest and wishing us well than the remarkable and splendid utterance of President Roosevelt the other day at \Vashington. 'If wo turn to tho East in Europe I know very well that any suggestion of suspicion that wo were capable of being unjust to Mohammedans in India has been flouted in Constantinople." Dealing with tho question of Mohammedan representation and tho proposal of tho deputation that electoral colleges should bo composed exclusively of Moslems whose members and mode, of grouping should , ho fixed by the executive authority, he declared that this was a proposal not outside the dispatch, and we should see—ho hoped speedily—whether tho Government of India disclosed objections to its practicability. Their object was to get a "decided, real, and gqnuino Mohammedan representation." Ho wished some of his friends in this country would study tho figures of what wore called the lower castes, hocauso they might then seo the enormous difficulty and absurdity of applying to India tho same principles as wore very good guides to us Westerns, who had boon bred upon tho puro milk of tho words, "Ono man ono vote, and every man a voto."