LOYAL INDIA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 23 May 1916, Page 6

LOYAL INDIA

BRITAIN'S TRUST JUSTIFIED

DESPITE HUN TRICKERY

By Telegraph—Prefiß Association —OoDyriuht London, May 21. The New York" "Times," in an interview with Lord Hardinge, describes him as eaying that for months early in the war only ten or fifteen thousand British troops remained in control of iTic 315 million people in India. Guns andmunitions were also sent without etint, and only a few batteries remained on the nortli-west frontier. 'This was possiblo because of the mutual trust between the British and tho Indian people's. "At the outset of the war lie consulted with the Indian leaders. They assured him that there were 110 serious troubles. "We therefore sent out tliree hundred thousand men, including forces to France, Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Gallipoli, and the Cameroons." This would have been foolhardy if India was as disloyal as Germany suggested, for what was done wus tantamount to have evacuated India, and would have been equivalent to condemning the remaining whites to 'death. The garrison had since been reinforced by Territorials. _ A revolt of 7000 Sikhs from the United States and Canada' was a striking example. They had been imbued with revolutionary ideas, anil committed murder and other excesses in the Punjab in February, 1915. But they not only failed to subvert the Punjab, but the Sikh peasantry assisted in seizing and handing over the guilty. Tho Sikhs were undoubtedly parties to a conspiracy, aiming at a general rising and the scizuro of the Ferozpore Arsenal, but the loyalty of the natives to tho British Raj brought the conspiracy to nought. Several of the villagers .of Balasore, in assisting the police to arrest the revolutionaries, were actually killed iin the melee. . There was amplj evidence that Germany gave financial and other assistance, and her agents were supplied with considerable . funds. One ambitious plot in Bengal sought to create a general revolt on Christmas Day, 1915. bat the Government had full information, and was able to render it abortive. (Rcc. May 22, 2.25 p.m.) Crazy Anarchists. . Lord Hardingo continued: "Tho Germans attempted to suborn Sepoys in tho Indian regiments, but the men themselves gave information to the authorities. What little disloyalty there is, is anarchistic rather thau revolutionary. The Ghadr Party is frankly anarchistic, and is encouraged by a few ora'zy individuals in the United States and Western Canada, wul subventioned Germany. The greatest strength of the Ghadr Party is in Bengal, where it seeks to reduce that province to chaos by murdering police officials. A gang of three was responsible for an outrage on December 22, 1912, and two of these have sinco been executed, 'a here have been similar crimes elsewhere. "There has been a vast political development in India during the last five and a half years. Politicians whose aspiration was self-government are now more moderate, ancl more sensible. They realise that it is impossible for India to stand alone. This is due to Lord Morley's and Lord Minto's reformation, of the Council."