The meeting held at Pearson's house in Hampstead Heat on 19th June was described by Sukumar Ray to his sister Punyalata Chakraborty (1889-1974)in letter a dated 21 June (Friday 7th Asharh);
" Day before yesterday, I was invited to read a paper on Bengali Literature at Pearson's ( he has replaced Dr. P.K.Ray ) house.I went there and saw Mr. & Mrs. Amold, Mr. & Mtrs.Rothenstein, Dr.P.C.Roy, Mr. Sarbadhikari and many others already known to me. There were some Europeans ( Male and Female) whom I do not know. Not only those persons, after entering the room I found Rabi Babu was also sitting there. You could well understand my state of mind. Any way, I read my essay unhesitatingly. Though I took much labour in constructing the essay. I consulted books for material collection borrowing books from India Office Library. Moreover, I took the help of some poems written by Rabindranath (Sudur, Parash Pathar, Sandhya, Kunrir bhitare kandiche Gandha etc.) which I translated into English. Every one praised all those translation. .... Rothenstein took my address and said ' you must come tour place and stay in to dinner.' Then I went to the top of Rothenstein's building and saw a beautiful sight."
I met there with Rathindranath also. Having seen me Rabindranath said, " now, physically you have improved yourself.
The translated forms of the poems of Rabindranath made by Sukumar Ray was not published but the essay " The spirit of Rabindranath Tagore", written by him with the translation of "Ami chanchala he" was published in "The Quest (vol-V, Oct 1913)".
The letter written by Rabindranath to Ajit Kumar before and after the occasion of 19th June (5th Asharh) determined his (Ajit Kumar) future way of life;
" The translation of 'Sab Payechir Desh' into English done by you has been published in "Nation". I shall try to send it to you today. Every one said high of you. Just on that day, Lady Bytes said to me, 'an ordinary graduate of your country can do so high literary work in English is difficult to think of' .'
I had some talk with the editor of the series "Wisdom of the East", Cranner (Cranmer)Byng yesterday- he told me that he likes to publish the translation of Gitanjali in his Series. But Rothenstein declined and said we shall not allow anybody to publish your book other than the topmost publication. They are of opinion that they shall do in consultation with Yeats. Rothenstein said, "Yeats know you, and likes your construction. Very soon I shall meet Yeats. I shall soon be included in the circle of Wells, Bernard Shaw etc.
It seemed that the possibilities of discussion about the translation of Rabindranath's poem with Yeats came up this time. In fact, the name of Rabindranath was well known among the India-lover English man associated with the India Society. Those who had returned from India such as Havel, S.K.Radcliff, Rothenstein, Kumaraswami, etc already knew him personally. Persons like Arthur Fox Strangways and many others had also followed their view. Some might have gone through his translation published in Modern Review. The translation of Sabpayechir Desh by Ajit Kumar published in Nation in the title "The country of Found-Everything" was not at all negligible.
It can be remembered that even after many attempts made by Jagadish Chandra and Nivedita, some translations of short stories of Rabindranath could not be published earlier.Arthur fox Strangways (1859-1948) was the Secretary of India Society. Rothenstein wrote in his memoir, " this person tried so that the Oxford or Cambridge University offered Rabindranath an honourary D.Lit diploma. But that was turned down by the then Chancellor, Lord Curzon, of Oxford University on the argument that 'there were more distinguished men in India than Tagore'.
It was evident that he did not like Rabindranath for his patriotic songs during Swadeshi movement. This idea was expressed by Mary M. Lago in a letter written to Rothenstein on 12 Jun which said "of one who had added politically to the labours of the Viceroy". In this letter she proposed to throw a dinner in the name Rabindranath to felicitate him by India Society.
This to be noted that Rabindranath landed England on 16th June, 1912 and the letter was written on 12 June, 1912.
