race with its capital at Constantinople.”  If only every word of this pledge is fulfilled both in letter and in spirit, there would be little left for quarrelling about.  In so far as Mr. Asquith’s declaration can be considered hostile to the Indian Muslim claim, it its superseded by the later and more considered declaration of Mr. Lloyd George—­a declaration made irrevocable by fulfilment of the consideration it expected, viz. the enlistment of the brave Mahomedan soldiery which fought in the very place which is now being partitioned in spite of the pledge.  But the writer of ‘Current Topics’ says Mr. Lloyd George “is now in process of keeping his pledge” I hope he is right.  But what has already happened gives little ground for any such hope.  For, imprisonment or internment of the Khalif in his own capital will be not only a mockery of fulfilment but it would he adding injury to insult.  Either the Turkish Empire is to be maintained in the homelands of the Turkish race with its capital at Constantinople or it is not.  If it is, let the Indian Mahomedans feel the full glow of it or if the Empire is to be broken up, let the mask of hypocrisy be lifted and India see the truth in its nakedness.  To join the Khilafat movement then means to join a movement to keep inviolate the pledge of a British minister.  Surely, such a movement is worth much greater sacrifice than may be involved in non-co-operation.

APPEAL TO THE VICEROY

Your Excellency.

As one who has enjoyed a certain measure of your Excellency’s confidence, and as one who claims to be a devoted well-wisher of the British Empire, I owe it to your Excellency, and through your Excellency to His Majesty’s Ministers, to explain my connection with and my conduct in the Khilafat question.

At the very earliest stages of the war, even whilst I was in London organising the Indian Volunteer Ambulance Corps, I began to interest myself in the Khilafat question.  I perceived how deeply moved the little Mussalman World in London was when Turkey decided to throw in her lot with Germany.  On my arrival in India in the January of 1915, I found the same anxiousness and earnestness among the Mussalmans with whom I came in contact.  Their anxiety became intense when the information about the Secret Treaties leaked out.  Distrust of British intentions filled their minds, and despair took possession of them.  Even at that moment I advised my Mussalman friends not to give way to despair, but to express their fear and their hopes in a disciplined manner.  It will be admitted that the whole of Mussalman India has behaved in a singularly restrained manner during the past five years and that the leaders have been able to keep the turbulent sections of their community under complete control.