AFFAIRS IN INDIA

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 128, 3 June 1919, Page 7

AFFAIRS IN INDIA

TO SHE EDITOR. Sir, —In Wedniisday's Post there appeared an account by cable of a serious rising in India. The cause of the rising was not stated, but five thousand Indians were killed. The .peaceful passivity of Indians is well known j therefore it would be wise to consider how such a. rising, was provoked. I trust that you will 'allow me to call attention to a few facts. During the great war waged for the principle of self-determination India contributed out of her /poverty many millions of money, besides one and a-half millions of men, or more than ajl the other colonies and dominions put together. Yet Indians were not allowed to select a representative for the P.eace Conference, although one was selected for tliem. And where is her place in the League of Nations? How has her splendid loyalty been recognised?. Before peace is proclaimed, the British Indian Government is imposing further coercive measures upon the loyal Indians called the Rowlatt Bills. These coercive measures are bitterly opposed even by the most moderate Indians, but as the Indians have only a small minority in the legislative bodies they are powerless to do anything else but protest. Then the minority protest of the Select Committee against the Bilk when presented to the legislative Council was not even mentioned. From one end of the country to the other there is a sense of deep indignation, and although Indians are not allowed to carry anus the warlike races o£ the north seam to have broken out in revolt. Indians are claiming the right of self-determination promised in the Royal Proclamation in 185U, and the peaceful, patient, and constitutional methods adopted by the Indian National Congress for ovdv thirty years are answered by wholesale .press forfeitures and extreme coercive, measures. With what result? Throughout the country loyal Indians are pfed|;ing themselves, by signing a form, to> a method of passive resistance in response to the appeal of Gandhi, who'successfully led a similar effort in South Africa, which terminated after thousands af Indians had suffered prosecutions. Two months ago many thousands of Indians had pledged themselves to break thq coercive laws being imposed upon t3iem by the bureaucracy awl suffer the oonsaquences. What will'be the result?—-I am,'.etc., JOHN GRIFFITHS. 30th May..