Extracts from the Presidential address at All India Newspaper Editor’s Conference. April 1947
..The Press in India is now adjusting itself to a complete transformation of scene. Does it not seem but yesterday when we were engaged in grimly fighting the battle of National Herald and Harijan with little hope of stable success? Today, National Herald is digging its toes under ideal conditions of popularity, prestige and security and Harijan is in need of ever-increasing supplies of paper for its expanding circulation in all the languages of the land. On the other hand the old prestige class of newspapers no longer causes the heartburn of the age that has gone by. The problems and duties of yesterday are not valid today. We are no longer struggling to maintain a precarious balance between honour and expediency under an alien regime. Freedom is on the horizon. It has appeared sooner than many of us dared expect. We have played part in its achievement. But it many be true to day that the Press of thirty or forty years ago contributed more to the great consummation we seem to witness than the newspaper of later years. Let us pray tribute ungrudgingly to our illustrious predecessors. We proudly salute them as we go forward to witness with our own eyes the result of their exertions and sacrifices...