Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1910 Book 06

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 179

Speech delivered by Mr. Kumar Sing Nahar in moving a resolution of sorrow & condolence on the demise of H. M. the late King-Empero Elw VII at a miss mee ing of the ci izens of Azimganj & Baluchar on 20-5-10.
Mr. Cirman & Gentlemen,
(6
We are met here to-day under the shadow of a great national sorrow such the country was overwhelmed with at the beginning of this century on the demise of Her Most Gracious Majesty the lare Queen-Empress Victoria, Barely a decade has elapsel since then and the nation is again pling d in mourning at the sudden death of her sm and successor, our helove i sovereign the late King -Emperor Edward VII, who, by reason of his pr: found sympathy and affection for his Indian subjects, enshrined himse in their hearts quite as firmly as his august mother bad done before hin. Gentlemen, it is no exaggeration to say that his loss is most keenly felt throughout the British Empire, nay the whole civilized world. A constitutional monarch in the strictest sense of the term, he was yet able to wield .11 amount of influence that can hardly be cre lited in these days of democratic rule. And this influence he always exerted to the lasting good of the Empire and in the cause of universal world-wide peace,-a fact which has deservedly won for him the noble appelation of "The Peacemaker. It is an open secret that the Entente cordiale" with France and later on with Russia was due mainly to his initiative, that it was in fact brought about more by his tact and influence than anything else For India too, his reign, brief as it was, proved a memorable one, for it saw the granting of a generous scheme of reform which was hailed as the first beginnings of representative government and which went a long way towards the satisfacti n of legitimate political-aspirations. Gentlemen, the sponta eous wail of sorrow which has again risen from every nook and corner of the country, bears eloquent testimony to the genuine loyalty and attach ent of the vast mass of the people to the British Crown It is likewise in this sense that the significance of the countless messages of sympay and allegiance that are being daily, hourly transmitted to the seat of Royalty, is to be interpretel. This universal solidarity of feeling must ing home to our ruler, that though we are divided on many points, we are at one in our love and devotion to the British Crown, that here at leas, we all stand on a common platform, shoulder to o shoulder, without distinction of race or colour, caste or creel Gentlenen, it is in this loyalty that the safety and peaceful progress of our country lie; it is this