Exile in Europe 105same night for Berlin; there he had a meeting with expatriate Indians
who were planning a Congress jubilee celebration. He described Ger-
many as “now very pro- British,” sensing that the Nazis wished to avoid
riling the British Empire while trying to build an imperial system of
their own. He found the economic situation to be very bad. Hausfrauen
as a class felt discontented because essential commodities were scarce,
but the government could “not put these women into prisons so eas-
ily!” The trip to Belgium was pure holiday; Bose spent it sightseeing
with his friends Kantilal Parekh and Nathalal Javeri, though he also
gave an interview to the Antwerp paper Le Matin. Next on his itinerary
was Paris, where he met the writer André Gide, the pacifist Félicien
Challaye, and leaders of the women’s movement, Mme. Drevet and
Mme. Duchêne. With Europe in turmoil, he was able to interest French
intellectuals—but not the French government—in Indian affairs.^54
Ireland’s shared his tory of colonization ensured a much more en-
thusiastic reception for an Indian seeking freedom from British rule.
With great excitement and anticipation, Bose boarded the American
ship S.S. Washington at Le Havre on January 30, 1936, for Ireland. His
first act on disembarking at Cork was to leave a floral tribute at the
grave of Terence MacSwiney, the former mayor, who had died as the
result of a hunger strike against the British authorities. Bose regarded
his two weeks in Ireland as the po lit i cal high point of his European
sojourn. President Eamon de Valera warmly received him upon his ar-
rival in Dublin. De Valera accorded Bose the sta tus of a high dignitary
from a friendly foreign country, and held three meetings with him: a
formal exchange of views in the government buildings, an informal tea
reception hosted by his Fianna Fáil party, and a private dinner at his
home outside Dublin. Bose looked up to the older anticolonial revolu-
tionary, and sought his advice. They discussed the possibilities and
limits of external help for a country that was struggling for freedom
against its colonial rulers. De Valera would have known a good deal
about this issue: in 1916, Ireland had counted on arms from the Conti-
nent to aid the Easter Rising, but these had not arrived in time and the
failure had led to the execution of Roger Casement. De Valera’s own
experiences of trawling for support in the United States for the Irish