My Mother — Page 87
Fulfilment of Dream (A) 87 was ready for hearing. When that was disposed of, I was asked to lead the Indian delegation to the Pacific Relations Conference which was to be held at Mont Tremblant, a skiing resort in the Laurentian Mountains, in the Province of Quebec, Canada. The journey proved an odyssey and, owing to war conditions, somewhat of an ordeal. It proceeded Karachi-Cairo (a halt of three days)-Wadi Halfa-Khartoum-Jinja (Uganda)-Stanleyville (Congo)-Leopoldville-Lagos (a halt of three days)-Accra (two days) Natal (Brazil)-Georgetown (British Guiana)-Miami- New York (four days)-Montreal-Mont Tremblant. After the Conference, I received a request from the Secretary of State for India, Mr. Emery, to proceed to London for consultations on constitutional changes in India. The journey was to be by bomber from Montreal to Glasgow. We were held up at Montreal for eight days by a blizzard. I arrived in London on January 5, 1943. Life in war time London was subject to restrictions but surprisingly was not uncomfort- able. The conversations took longer than had been anticipated and I left London in the beginning of March. The return jour- ney was by way of Poole-Shannon-Lisbon-Bathurst (Gambia)- Lagos (three days’ halt during which I laid the foundation stone of the Ahmadiyyah Mosque)-Leopoldville-Elizabethville-Jinja- Khartoum (two days’ halt)-Cairo-Karachi. In the spring of 1945, as President of the Indian Institute of International Affairs, I led the Indian delegation to the Common - wealth Relations Conference held at Chatham House, St. James’s Square, London. In the opening meeting I made a passionate appeal for Indian independence, which I developed further in my speech at the banquet the same evening. These two speeches