THE IMPERIAL CHAIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 70, 17 December 1918, Page 6

THE IMPERIAL CHAIN

WEAKNESS OF THE INDIAN LINK. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Recent cablegrams gave the heavy deatli-roll in Bombay ana other liuliau cities, stating that if the same propor : tion prevailed in other parts'of the country there would be a total of 3,01)0,001) deaths. This is at least Highly probaole, tor the hold un life is very sugiit in tne average Indian peasant, because his bouy is so poorly nourished. When we come to consider that' the official figures show the average income in India to be 2k. per year, pef head, or a little over three iartliings a day, therefore the average oi the peasant must be even lower than that. Great numbers do not get one meal a day, and those who do are satisfied with a lew liandtuls of rice, so when famine or epidemic touches them even lightly they die in thousands. •Truly, tnere is great need for reconstruction in India. . ■ . The British Government apparently approves of the reforms suggested by Air. ilontagui as Secretary of State for India, but strong vested interests are opposing them. The British journal ' the "Spectator," is voicing them as expressed by the Indo-British Association. This mushroom association 1 recently circularised British-Indian commercial houses, stating that "contributions to their funds was an insurance premium tor business interests in India." Lord Sydenham, the chairman of the committee of this association, wrote in an article which appeared in the "Spectator," referring to the demand for Home Hule in India, that "at a time,when India is exceptionally prosperous, and when at home measures of all kinds, were held in abeyance, it would have been easy to proclaim that no consideration could be given to the little band of Indian agitators until the ' end of the war," Tl/e above is a good sample oif the tenor of many articles appearing' in the previously mentioned journal. To think that a noble Lord should say that India is exceptionally ■ prosperous when' the average income is about Jd. per head per day. He further states that "our rule has been uniformly inspired by the principles of Christianity. That is the main reason of our wonderful success." Such are the statements made by a strong opponent to the claims ol' the Indians, that it is only just that they should have self-government within the Empire. The strength of a chain is that of its weakest link. The. Indian linns are in a dangerously weak state: - Sir Charles Elliot, speaking of India, said: "I do not hesitate to say that half our agricultural population never know from year's end to year o'end what it is to have their hunger fully satisfied." That means 100,000,000 are always hungry. Few are aware oi the terrible extent of poverty in India. • and many who know very much lass about Indian affairs than Lord Sydenham think that India is fairly prosperous. Surely it is time that the state of India should' be freely Voiced in our papers. But the Prussian spirit pervades our rule in India, and the censor has striven to keep the rest oi the Empire in a stats of blissful ignorance regarding the appalling state of India. In the last seven months only one copy of an Indian weekly has been passed by the censor for transmission to New Zealand. Other magazines come through in a mutilated state. Probably in no country in the world is the Cross muzzled as it is in India.—l am, etc., J. GRIFFITHS, Hon. Sec. N.Z. and India Lewie, Johnsonville.