Is it a Matter of Mere Opinion?

ANGLO-Indian critics claim that Sir Archibald Birkmyre has given the Government of India his valuable opinion on the question of Home Rule for India. That opinion is that all the present agitation for it is useless and India is not fit for the reform. It is true, he says, that India will deserve Home Rule at some distant future which she is sure to get. No doubt, the learned speaker is entitled to his opinions, but he, like others who are opposed to Home Rule, considers the question a matter of mere opinion. To the bulk of the people of India, and those who speak for them, it is not a matter of opinions but of national existence. We should like to see all opponents of Home Rule give their opinions by imagining themselves governed by a bureaucracy in their own home with rights and privileges and wrongs and restraints like Indians.