I AM...................BUT........... 315
You have very kindly referred to my university career, the work I have done as a teacher, lawyer and Member of the Bombay Legislative Council in terms which are to my mind somewhat extravagant. Let me assure you that I am not so vain as to believe that what you said is really my due. I make it that the language you have used is indicative of the great sympathy which you have for the cause in which I have laboured so long and that what you have said is really in support of the cause than of my own individual personality.
Reference had been made to the work of the Madras Corporation in respect of the slum clearance, food for the children of working classes. It would not be appropriate if I were to parade what the Government of India has done in this connection. However, just to ward off criticism that has been sometimes levelled against the Government of India that it is a very slow machine and grinds very slowly. I my say that the Government of India during the last few years has not been an ideal body waiting upon time to carry out some of the most necessary reforms which every Government is bound to perform. I wish to refer to a great piece of work which Government of India has done for the working population during the last few years. I would refer to the scheme of technical training which has imparted skill to unskilled men to the extent of 68,000 people. There are three to four hundred training centres spread throughout India and it is our hope and aspiration that the scheme of technical training which we have built up will not be scrapped at the end of the war and that it would be a permanent part of the educational system of this country whereby childern of the working classes who had no opportunity of reaching university education could have the opportunity of having better skill and thus improving their earning capacity (cheers). There are several places of legislation which the Government has put through during war. For instance, there is the provision of compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes. Hitherto the Government of India has no authority to prescribe terms and conditions of employment of workmen. It was only a matter for the private individual with nothing more than a private contract