FASCISTS IN INDIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1939, Page 7

FASCISTS IN INDIA

CREATING TROUBLE

INCREASING INFLUENCE

The increasing influence being exerted by Germans, Italians, and Japanese in this and contiguous countries is causing some concern, writes the Indian correspondent of "The Times." There is evidence that Nazi and Fascist propaganda is being insidiously disseminated, although it is clear from the Nationalist Press that Indians in general prefer the existing association ■with Great Britain to relations with any other European or Oriental Power. Orthodox members of the Congress Party are themselves suspicious that indirect financial support is reaching extreme members of the party from foreign sources. Some sections of the Press appear to have succumbed to the blandishments of foreign propaganda, which reaches them in the form of regular "news letters" purporting to be objective commentaries on German policy. Itinerant Germans and Italians, frequently posing as journalists, are obviously surveying internal conditions in the country, and among the extremer anti-British elements they spread propaganda detrimental to British interests. Such visitors are incapable of appreciating the finer points of the constitutional controversy, and they seek to promote the prestige of their own countries in the belief that a war emergency would find India ready for something other than British tutelage. They are to some extent encouraged in their belief by the attitude of political extremists, some of them Congress men, who are urging the present time as propitious for a "major assault" on British overlordship, on the ground that the home country has her hands more than full with European problems. WITH THE DEMOCRACIES. While no authoritative view has been expressed by the Congress leaders on the attitude of their«teirty in the event of a world war, it i™clear that Indian opinion is on the side of the democracies. The extremists who continue to prate of British imperialism obviously [recognise that, whatever faults they ascribe to it, it is much less sinister than the imperialism taught by the Nazi and Fascist creeds. The Indian Princes will unhesitatingly associate themselves with Great Britain in the event of a war, and Moslems, in both India and Afghanistan, have been seriously disturbed by the unexpected subjection of their co-religionists in Albania to the Fascist regime. While some Congress men would seize upon British difficulties as an opportunity for further constitutional bargaining, it is obvious that there is a strong and sober element of Hindu opinion that would line up behind the democratic forces of the world, in the event of war. There was widespread suspicion over Dr. Schacht's visit, and something like resentment was shown at the open manner in which he was welcomed in Bombay by a German described as "head of the Nazi Party .in India." Various sections of the Press reviewed the economic politics which Dr. Schacht developed into a fine art when he was President of the Reichsbank, chiefly as a warning to Indian commercial interests of the treatment they might be expected to receive from any deal made with him. | IN AFGHANISTAN. j There is also a strong feeling in India that Afghanistan is becoming [more popular with Germans, Italians, and Japanese than is justified by the economic opportunities offered in" that country. Germans are said to be emj ployed in the State Bank, in educational institutions, in the police ser- ! vices, and in Government Departments. Some roam freely about the country as surveyors and engineers. Italians are occupied with Afghan aviation, which can have few tempting economic potentialities. Experience in the last war suggests that British enemies in a future war will endeavour to make India a liability within the British Commonwealth, and propaganda activities from neutral j territory may be expected on a lavish! scale. In the last war Indian malcontents under German tutelage tried to create trouble among the frontier tribes, and some of these agents have lately renewed their activities in India. The leading Powers of the AntiComintern Pact have special reasons for finding Afghanistan a suitable area! for their observations on Russia, and! during the September crisis hostility to both Russia and Great Britain was displayed by some foreigners in Kabul with more enthusiasm than tact. Japan is reputed to be spending money in both India and Afghanistan in a network of intelligence activities ranging from Australia to Iran. While each of these countries is at present working independently, it is clear that in the event of war between the democratic and totalitarian Powers the affinities between the ideologies of Germany, Italy, and Japan would quickly find them in collaboration. There is reason jto believe that the Indian and Afghan [Governments appreciate this possibility.