248 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



had to train his successors for the administration of the 

 Institute. He had the initial good fortune to secure as 

 Assistant Director an old pupil who proved his ability 

 and his devotion in the pursuit of research. To those who 

 are working under him Bose has given every opportunity 

 of developing their individuality. 



It was towards the end of 1919 that Bose felt impelled, 

 in the interests of his Institute, to visit England there to 

 convince, fully and finally, the scientific public of the 

 importance of the modern Indian contribution to science. 



But the time chosen for this purpose did not at all seem 

 promising. Bose's English friends uttered abundant 

 warning as to the distracted political and social conditions 

 of England. The national affairs, the national temper, had 

 made little apparent progress, in the first year of nominal 

 peace, towards a recovery of the normal. He would find it 

 impossible, they said, to arouse any interest in such scientific 

 work as his, still less in such a scheme as the Calcutta 

 Institute. The discouragement was powerful and various ; 

 but in spite of it Bose persisted in his plans and reached 

 London in the middle of November. 



His reception was extraordinarily different from what 

 he had been led, by friendly voices in England and India, 

 to expect. It was as though the entire British world 

 had been prepared, by every sort of experience, to receive 

 and acclaim the discoveries which, in previous years, had 

 seemed to be problematical and remote. It was as though 

 all doors were flung wide open. 



What may be described as the authentic recognition 

 by leading thinkers came in December, in the form of a 

 meeting at the India ^Office, arranged by Mr. Montagu, 

 the Secretary of State for India, who had been deeply 

 interested in Bose's work ever since, a good many years 

 before, during his tour as Under Secretary, he had met with 

 it in Calcutta. Bose was invited to give a lecture and 

 demonstration, with Mr. Arthur Balfour in the chair. There 

 can be no exaggeration in saying that the occasion was 



