ΡΑRΤΙΤΙΟΝ ΟΡ ΕΕΝΟΑL Tate MIa haraja, IMIa nindra, INTandi’s Speach. Delivered on 8th August 1905. Gentlemen, My, presence here this evening and my occupation of the presidential chair of this great meeting is significant in more ways than one. It shows that we of West and Central Bengal are in deep sympathy with: our brethren cf East and North Bengal and that we are resolved to make common cause with them in averting what I have no hesitation in describing as the greatest calamity which has befallen the Bengali-speaking race since the com mencement of British rule. The old emasculated province of which we shall be a part, will suffer even more than the newly formed province. Among the six divisions of the old province, there will be only a division and a half containing a Bengali-speaking population. We shall be in a hopeless minority and the prospects of public employment of our people will dwindle in proportion of our numerical insignificance. In the province the Mohamedan population will preponderate ;. and in the old province the Bengali Hindoos will be in a minority. We shall be stronger in our own land. I dread the prospect and the outlook fills me with anxiety to the future of our race. Considerations of administrative convenience must always have their due weight with statesmen. But far important to them is the good-will of the governed as an essential factor for the purposes of a wise and even efficient administration. Geometrical symmetry in. administrative divisions may be desirable best as ther
