i8o FAREWELL BANQUET 



renders it incumbent upon me to break the rule 

 which I had laid down for myself. 



I look round this banqueting-hall and I see 

 Indians of nearly every caste, creed, rank, and 

 profession who have come from nearly every part 

 of this great continent to do honour to one who 

 has for the best part of five years endeavoured to 

 do his duty by them ; and it would ill become me if 

 I did not endeavour to convey to you all, even 

 though it be very inadequately, my feelings of 

 profound, heartfelt gratitude for your kindness. 



I cannot refrain from expressing my regret that 

 so many of you should have been put to the great 

 personal inconvenience entailed by travelling long 

 journeys in hot weather to enable you to come to 

 Simla to do me honour. 



The kindness which you are showing me this 

 evening is literally overwhelming, and I do not 

 hesitate to admit that it has affected me to a 

 degree which renders the task of speaking to-night 

 even more difficult than it must of necessity be. 

 Indeed, I hardly think I could have faced the duty 

 of endeavouring to give adequate expression to my 

 gratitude were it not for the fact that I fully appre- 

 ciate that it is not the individual to whom you are 

 doing honour, but rather the honest effort which 

 has influenced me throughout my Indian career, 

 not only to identify myself with the aspirations 

 of Indians, but to recognise the honest desire 

 which influences them, to combine progress and the 

 desire to share in the Government of their own 

 country, with the most complete and absolute 

 devotion to our common Sovereign and loyalty 

 to the British Empire. 



If I have been able, in the short time I have 

 been with you, to impress upon you how earnestly 

 I have hoped to succeed in making myself ac- 

 quainted with the wishes and the aspirations of 

 Indians; if I have succeeded in impressing upon 



