Mrs. C. R. Das
INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
AN APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY
Awake: Arise: Hear ye not your mother's call? Oft, in days gone by, she came to you and spoke to you and you heard her not. She stands before you again to-day and speaks in accents clear and irresistible. And should she speak in vain? Would you still hide your face in fear or would you, a free being as you are, rise and respond to her stern and imperious call?
The national Congress sits on the 26th of December. Many of its trusted leaders and workers, young and old, will be absent from its deliberations for reasons which are known to you. These high-souled and selfless patriots, though absent, will be present there in spirit. Should you not be there to be cheered and inspired by their presence? The President's Chair will remain vacant. What then? His message to the Congress he has left with me and on the eve of his arrest he charged me, his wife, with the sacred duty of delivering it to you. Poor and unworthy as I am, I shall try to discharge
