Life of Ahmad — Page 746
BISHOP OF LAHORE AND ISLAM as 746 Sir, your most obedient servant. ' (Sd. ) G. A. , Lahore. The Committee of the Muhammadans requested the Bishop to reconsider his decision and its Secretary wrote from Qadian on July 10th, 1900: 'Right Reverend Sir, Your Lordship’s reply refusing to enter into a fair controversy with Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as , the Chief of Qadian, was intimated to the Committee and received with deep regret. The reasons on which your Lordship’s refusal is based are the result of certain misconceptions and errors, and I have been directed to deal with them at full length in a pamphlet which will shortly be published in case the reply to this request is as disappointing as to the former. Before sending the proposed pamphlet to print, however, it has been thought advisable once more to urge on your Lordship the necessity of such a controversy as a large majority of the Muslim public is anxious to hold. The Muslims and the Christians equally longed to see the proposal accepted and many of the foremost Anglo-Indian papers not only expressed an interest in it but clearly stated their opinion that the proposal, from whatever point of view one may look at it,—from the high repute, learning and influence of the proposed champions, the quarter from which the challenge came, the questions that were to