APPALLING BUTCHERY

Chronicle (Levin), 6 September 1947, Page 5

APPALLING BUTCHERY

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter, (

Hindus and Sikhs Foimd lassacred '

lopyright)

Eeceived Priday, 7.15 p.m. LODDON, Sept. 5. The Times, iii an editorial, says there are some grounds for hoping tbat the worst excesses of the Indian communal terror niay be over. Outside Punjab isolated outrages eontinue and rioting has rudely broken the unexpected cairn of Calcutta. The local authorities are acting with energy, curfews are being imposed and order is being enforced without a-egard to the ereed of those "vvho disturb it. Mr. Gandhi's latest fast seems to have had a good eft'ect in Bengal. The situation in the Punjab, however, reniains critieal though even here there has been some improveinent. There are some signs that the fearful competition in retaliation is declining as the Governments of both Dominions niake plain their deter 'niination that they will not tolerate it. > They are cooperating earnestly and if they eontinue to do so, peace inav be restored to the tortured Punjab. Tours of the disturbed areas bv the Prime Ministers and JDefence Minis.ters of the two Dominions have done good. It is still too early to judge wliether the decision to abolish the Punjab Boundary Foree was wise. It exercised a steadying iuflueuce but there were advantages in placing the responsibility for nmintaining order squarely upon the shoulders of the Indian and Pakis tan annies respeetively and the temporary establishment of military headquarters for each force in Lahore should make coordiuation easier. The l'efugees now number over a million and ] ) resen t a serious problem to both Governments. The Sikh rising, carefully planned and carried out with most ruthless l'erocity, has driven a pitiful tiood of JMosIem fugitives into the Western Punjab. The Ilindu and Sikh population of that province, fearing reprisals, is moving in a mass to Eastern Punjab. In addition to grievous individual loss and sull'ering inseparable from these sudden and alniost uncontrollable migrations of immense numbers oi people, the econoniic consequences oi the recent disturbances will be serious. On each side of the border thousands of most jjeaceful and industrious citizens abandoned their livelihood, leaving the lields untiiled, work undone and res])onsibilities, publie as well as private, wholly unregarded. The effects will be cuinulative and must take long to remedy. Only less serious is the blow to commerce, industrv and agriculture from ,the total breakdown of iailway communications between the two Dominions caused by the svstematic attacks upon trains and the blocking of roads by crowds of refugees. Both Iudia and Pakistan have ample cause to repent this fearful outburst of communal intolerance. The lesson for both is that such tragedies can be ayoided only by the closest and mosl vigilant eoojieration.