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Gandhi pattered to the rostrum, squatted beneath his tentlike shawl, submitted him self to heckling by some of the world's most talented hecklers, Britain's best. "What I want to know," drawled the first Parliamentary questioner, "is what does this term Mahatma mean? What is a Mahatma?" To catch the little man's low answer everyone strained forward, especially Miss Megan Lloyd George, buxom M. P. "Mahatma, sir," smiled Mr. Gandhi, "means 'an insignificant person.' " Hastily the British chairman interjected, "I am sure we all know that Mahatma is an Indian term meaning 'the embodiment of a great soul.' " "What do you think would happen," came the next question, "if we gave India her independence and got out? Don't you know, Mr. Gandhi, that civil war would start and that the Moslems of India would whip the Hindus!" Mr. Gandhi is a Hindu. Nine-tenths and more of his followers are Hindus. Yet at this telling question he shot back, "Even should the Moslems of India eat up all the Hindus they would still be Indians. It would not be too great a price to pay for Indian liberty!" Three Freedom Tests, Aside from answering the Commoners' questions, Mr. Gandhi made a two-hour-long speech in conversational tones, told the House roundly that he, speaking for the Indian National Congress, will not accept those "safeguards" and "reservations" with which British statesmen are trying to hedge the new Indian Constitution now being drafted in London. "The tests by which Indians will know whether they are free," postulated St. Gandhi, "are whether they have been granted control of Indian defense, the Indian Civil Service and Indian finance" —these being precisely the things Britons are trying to reserve while granting to India something called Independence, "I will not accept the husks of Independence," ultimatumed Nationalist Gandhi amid dead silence. "Rather, would I declare myself a rebel. We know what that means, but thousands of Indian Nationalists have rid themselves of the fear of Death." Chaplin & Gandhi. Fortunately no test of strength between India and Britain was possible last week. Talk was all anyone could do, and Mahatma Gandhi even talked to Charlie Chaplin—at the cinemactor's request. When told by his Indian friend Mrs. Sarojini Naidu that "the famous Mr. Chaplin wants to see you," St. Gandhi seemed puzzled, asked: "What is he famous for? Who is this Mr. Chaplin?" Sensitive Cinemactor Chaplin had been stopping the week-end with pugnacious Winston Churchill, M. P., public foe of Indian Independence. Mr. Churchill has called Mr. Gandhi "a half-naked, seditious fakir!" Mr. Chaplin, possibly primed by Mr. Churchill, fired the following question at Mr. Gandhi soon after he was introduced : "Why do you champion such a crude device as the hand spinning wheel? Inventions are the inheritance of mankind and should be .allowed to relieve the burdens of mankind. I am diametrically opposed," wound up Cinemactor Chaplin with a Churchillian flourish, "to the abolition of machinery!" "The hand wheel and the hand loom," answered Spinner Gandhi, "are necessary to provide occupation for India's millions. Modern machinery installed in India would