will in this way be enabled to keep in close touch with Mohammedans sentiments and interests. It must also be borne in mind that the interests of the Mohammedans will be safeguarded by the special representation which they enjoy in the legislative councils; while as regards representation on local bodies they will be in the same position as at present. We need not therefore trouble your Lordship with the reasons why we have discarded the suggestion that a Chief Commissionership, or a semi-independent Commissionership within the new province might be created at Dacca.
24. Before concluding this despatch we venture to say a few words as regards the need for a very early decision on the proposals we have put forward far Your Lordship's consideration. It is manifest that if the transfer of the capital is to be given effect to the question becomes more difficult the longer that it remains un salved. The experience of last two. sessions has shown that present Council Chamber in Government House, Calcutta fails totally; to meet the needs of the enlarged Imperial Legislative Council, and the proposal to acquire a site and to construct a Council Chamber is already under discussion. Once a new Council Chamber is built, the position of Calcutta as the capital of India will be further strengthened and consolidated and, though we are convinced that a transfer will in any case eventually have to be made, it will then be attended by much greater difficulty and still further expense. Similarly, if some modification of the Partition is, as we believe, desirable, the sooner it is effected the better, but we do not see how it can be safely effected with due regard for the dignity of Government as well as for the public opinion of the rest of India and more specially for Mohammedan sentiment, except as part of the larger scheme we have outlined. In the event of these far reaching proposals being sanctioned by His Majesty's Government, as we trust may be the case, we are of opinion that the presence of dig Majesty the King Emperor at Delhi would offer an unique opportunity for a pronouncement of one of the most weighty decisions ever taken since the establishment of British rule in India. The other two proposals embodied in our scheme are not of such great urgency but are consequentially essential and in themselves of great importance. Half measure will be of no avail, and whatever is to be done should be done so as to make a final settlement and to satisfy the claims of all concerned. The scheme which we have ventured to commend to Your Lordship's favorable consideration is not put forward with any spirit of opportunism but in the belief that action on he lines proposed will be a bold stroke of statesmanship which would give unprecedented satisfaction and will forever associate to unique an event as the visit of the reigning sovereign to his Indian dominions with a new era in the history of India.
25. Should the above scheme meet with the approval of Your Lordship and His Majesty's Government, we would propose that the King Emperor should announce at the Durbar the transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi and simultaneously, and as a consequence of that transfer, the creation at an early date of a Governorship in Council for Bengal and of a new Lieutenant-Governorship in Council for Behar. Chota Nagpur and Orissa, with such administrative changes and redistribution of boundaries as the Governor General-in-Council would in due course determine with a view to removing any legitimate causes for dissatisfaction arising out of the Partition of 1905. The formula of such a pronouncement could be designed after general sanction had been given to the scheme. This sanction we now have the honor to solicit from Your Lordship.
