Page, The Reverend Kirby

[Mr. Page (1890-1957) was a prominent pacifist and exponent of the social gospel, and a prolific speaker and writer. He worked for the YMCA and served as personal secretary to Sherwood Eddy for a few years. From 1926 to 1934, he was editor of World Tomorrow, a Christian pacifist monthly published in New York. He wrote more than 40 books and numerous articles. 
In 1925, Gandhiji received from an American friend a pamphlet by Mr. Page, War: Its Causes, Consequences and Cure (New York, 1923). He reproduced it in 21 instalments in Young India between November 26, 1925, and May 6, 1926.
Mr. and Mrs. Page visited India with Dr. and Mrs. Sherwood Eddy in 1929 and met Gandhiji. Mr. Page published his impressions in a booklet entitled, Is Mahatma Gandhi the Greatest Man of the Age? He wrote later in his autobiography: "Long since that question mark has been erased from my mind." He wrote another pamphlet in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi and his Significance: a biographical interpretation and an analysis of the political situation in India.¹³⁰]

 Letter, July 15, 1926¹³¹

[Mr. Page wrote to Gandhiji on May 5, 1926, requesting an article on non-violence for World Tomorrow.¹³² Gandhiji sent a cable on 9 June and an article on non-violence on 15 July.]

The Ashram,
Sabarmati
July 15, 1926

Dear friend,
With reference to your letter of the 5th May and in continuation of my cable dated 9th June, I send you now my article on non-violence.
You want 2,500 words from me. I have no time to think out anything so big. You will therefore please forgive me for sending you what little I have been able to put together. But, as I am sending you my contribution fairly in advance of the time given by you, I hope you will not be inconvenienced by the shortness of my article. Even as it is, what I have given you does not satisfy me. If I could, I would condense it still further.

Yours sincerely,

Kirby Page, Esq.
Editor of the "
World Tomorrow"
347 Madison Avenue
New York

Letter, September 14, 1928¹³³

[On August 1, 1928, Mr. Page sent an English translation of an open letter addressed to Gandhiji by the Reverend Barthelemy de Ligt, a Dutch pacifist, and requested Gandhiji's comments for publication in World Tomorrow.134 In that letter, Mr. de Ligt had criticized Gandhiji's participation in the Anglo-Boer War and the First World War, and invited him to explain his action in the light of ahimsa. Gandhiji had already received a copy of the letter from Mr. de Ligt and had replied to it in an article entitled "My Attitude towards War" in Young India, September 13, 1928.¹³⁵]

Satyagraha Ashram,
Sabarmati,
September 14, 1928

Dear friend,
I have your letter with a translation copy of Rev. B. de Ligt's open letter. The writer sent it himself two weeks before your letter was received. He also wanted me to send my reply for his journal. But I thought that I would reach a wider circle of readers, that is, those who are in the habit of reading my writings, if I attempted a brief reply in the pages of Young India. This, therefore, I have done. It was the best I could do in the time at my disposal. You may of course copy it for your paper. I send you a marked copy of Young India containing my reply.

Yours sincerely,

Kirby Page, Esq.
"The World Tomorrow"
52 Vanderbilt Avenue,
New York City

Letter, May 19, 1931¹³⁶

[In 1931, when Gandhiji agreed to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London, he received several invitations from the United States and it was rumoured that he would visit the United States after the Conference. Reverend Page and several others sent a joint cable advising him against a visit to the United States at that time.]

As at Sabarmati,
May 19, 1931

Dear friend,
I thank you for your letter. I deeply appreciated the cable sent by you and other friends. Without the cable too I had no intention of going to America just yet. But of course your cable and the letters since received have shown that my disinclination was well-grounded.

Yours sincerely,

Kirby Page, Esq.
New York

 Letter, October 17, 1937¹³⁷

Segaon, Wardha, C.P.,
October 17, 1937

Dear friend,
I am glad you are liberally taking passages from C.F. Andrews's pen in your anthology of devotional literature.138 For Charlie Andrews is a man of prayer and deep faith. He is a Christian to the marrow, but his Christ is not the Jesus Christ of a narrow sect. His Christ is the Anointed of humanity. He sees Him in Ramakrishna, Chaitanya and many other teachers whom I can name, and who are of other faiths. We in India, who know him, call him Deenabandhu, friend of the afflicted. Our friendship is of long standing; we are like blood-brothers. There are no secrets between us. Charlie is as simple as a child, forgiving and generous to a fault. He is loving and lovable like a woman who is purity personified. In jest I call him half woman and half man - but I mean it.

Yours sincerely,
M. K. Gandhi

Kirby Page, Esq.
La Habra
California

[Reverend Page wrote in his autobiography: "One of my prized possessions is a letter from Gandhi in his own handwriting in which he expresses his affection and admiration for his English friend who had become a true son of India."¹³⁹]