The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 57
57 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN whom I met. My feeling was that they were much more forthcoming than Europeans, and especially than the British; there seemed to be no limit to their hospitality or to their kindness. My reception in Chicago was overwhelming! A group of youngsters who came in with my friend who received me at the station accompanied me to my hotel room and sprawled all over, on the chairs, on the bed, on the table. The Century Exposition was on in Chicago - and they wanted to take me immediately to the Exposition, and succeeded in doing so. I still have a somewhat shy and retiring disposition, and it was a bit of a strain to jump at once to the level of intimacy that they seemed to expect and took for granted. Out of that first batch, I made friends with two or three, and that friendship I was able to keep up over a period of several years. One of them, and his whole family - and now that the second generation has grown up, also their children - are still very good friends. Whenever I got to Chicago they insist that I must stay with them. I have often stayed with the parents, and the junior members of the family come over and we have a reunion. Their name is Powells. I keep on telling Michael Powells, Jr. that I saw him first when he was only three years old; he is now 22, so he has grown up in the consciousness that I am a friend of the family. To go back to Toronto. The discussions were very educative. One of the topics in one of the panels was, "Is the Crown Divisible?" For instance, could the Crown be at war as the Crown of one Dominion and be neutral as the Crown of another Dominion? We did not come to any conclusion; we thought this was a difficult problem to push to a precise conclusion. Then the Second World War decided it. Eire was still a Dominion and remained neutral during the war. There was a German Minister at Dublin, while the rest of the Commonwealth was at war with Germany. We were put up in colleges of the University, as it was vacation time and the accommodations were available. We found ourselves comfortably lodged, the rooms were spacious and were fitted with every modern convenience. Each set for two undergraduates com-prised a bedroom and study, neat, clean, airy, well lighted and centrally heated. The only embarrassment we encountered was that the showers had no door or curtain in front. This was soon remedied. One evening one of the young undergraduates who was in charge of our section came up and told me that I was wanted on the telephone. So