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The German Consul expressed
He
deputation to wait on him.
great willingness to see us. He, however, advised caution as,
he said, he was being carefully watched. asked us to limit the number of our deputation to two or three members. And so Rur Singh and I alone attended on him.
We found him in his office and explained to him at some length of our intention of going to India and stirring up a revolution, We further asked him to make arrangements with some Norway-Swedish Shipping Company for our conveyance to India, He replied that, at that moment, there was no ship of the company in question in port and that the necessary arrangements could be made within the next 8 or 10 days. We then asked the Consul whether he could procure us passporte from the Chinese Government and thus enable us to buy arms in China and Journey unhindered by land to India, In reply he pointed out that the Chinese Government was neutral and that the passports required were not likely to be granted, He further added that we should take the Japanese boat of which we made mention. This would, he said, be our best course of action as Japan was merely allied to England because of the financial advantages which such an alliance gave the former, In reality, Japan was no friend of England. In fact nothing would be more gratifying to the Japanese than to see us go to India and raise the standard of rebellion. We then asked the German Consul
whether, in the event of our success in stirring up a
revolution in India, whether we could count upon assistance
from the German Navy, If such help were given us, we
promised to allow Germany free trade with India. The German
Consul said that he was not in a position to make us any
promisee