All congratulations are due to the representatives of the States who are assembled here for the ready manner in which they have acceded to these suggestions. At first when we were engaged in the Negotiating Committee in February 1947, it looked to me as though it would be a miracle to bring the representatives of the various States into this House, but when these men who were not able to stand within a mile of the Palaces of the Princes were sitting side by side with them on equal terms, it was a pleasurable sight to witness, and from that day forward we have progressed from step to step and stage by stage until today we have about 92 of them represented in this House sitting on terms of equality and friendly comradeship with us all.
