THE FIRM HAND IN BENGAL.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1926, Page 4

THE FIRM HAND IN BENGAL.

SEDITION NO LONGER POPULAR. (By Sir Pereival Phillips in the London , “ Daily Mail.") i CALCUTTA, January 17. Sedition has ceased to be popular in ( Bengal. This is not due so much to t change of heart on the part of tho Bengali as to his steady discourage- ■ incut by a firm policy of repression. , The result is greater security and quiet in this hotbed of rebellion than lias been the ease tor many years. The so-called Bengal Ordinance, which is responsible for this improvement, is an military measure against which there has been much criticism. It empowers Government to imprison or intern agitators who arc believed to be dangerous, without bringing tin in to trial ill the ordinary wav. Inc natives, of course, are violently opposed to the ordinance. It is equally repugnant to Europeans, but the latter realise that in no other wav can these miselievious conspirators be dealt with effectively. A fair trial is impossible in almost every case, for witnesses are intimidated to the point of murder. Experience lias shown that no innocent men have 1 suffered, while on the other hand the committal of professed leaders of revolutionary movements lias been of benefit, to the community. There are at pres-1 1 cut about' 110 Bengalis undergoing ' various forms of detention ranging from close imprisonment to surveillance ill a designated village or in their own homes. They include Bhose, chief executive officer ol the Calcutta ( oiporation. who is a. hitter enemy of British rule. IRELAND’S BAD EXAMPLE. It is significant that Ireland has furnished the inspiration for the revolutionary movement in Bengal. Nothing interests the Bengali so much as the story of the rising against Dublin Castle, with its attendant ambuscades. assassinations and street fighting. Nearly all the literature dealing with the campaign of Michael Collins ’ and his followers has been translated | . into the vermicular and is sold in native bookshops. : The Bengali believes that if he adopts tin 1 same methods as the Irish . Republicans he will achieve at least-as ! great a measure ol sell government. . This belief, il may he remarked iuei- > dentally, has been received by the Irish themselves with scorn and amusement. for they know that the Bengali , is not a lighter. All Irishman living in Calcutta, who went through part ol the rebellion in .. his own country said to C. R. Das, the , Bengali leader, a few week’s before the latter’s death h ,s l June: M hat impresses me about your revolutionaries is that they’re such incompetent beggars. In Ireland, when we wanted to I remove a mail, we got a reliable poison or persons and trained them lor ’ the job. You send out hysterical boys ! who don’t even know whom they’re shooting at. You will never do anything in India until you know the btisi-

This criticism was made apropos of the attempt to kill Sir Charles Tngart, Commissioner of Police ol ( alculta, who more than anv other one man has been responsible lor the suppression of revolutionary movements. A Bengali was told olf to shoot him. but ho shot instead an official named Day, who did not in the least resemble the commissioner.

Enforcement ol the Bengal Ordinance has greatly reduced the activities of the extremists. The death ol ■f. R. Das and other firebrands has deprived the Bengalis of capable leaders, and the men who succeeded them arc inferior in character.

The Bengali i* a horn politician hut a poor lighter, lie would like to listen to the hianilislunents of Moscow - mu because he is inclined to Bolshevism but in tlie hope that Moscow would lielj) him in his struggle against British rule -lull a watchful Government. prevents efficient contact in any

way. Roy. the Indian Bolshevik agent in Berlin, lias found the Bengalis a hindrance rather than a help. Like his Russian masters, he is opposed to a futilo policy for India of intermittent assassination, lie has always urged the quiet, systematic organisation of outbreaks on a large scale. But the highly strung, hysterical Bengali student cannot he kept in the leading strings. He is always wanting to do something, and as soon as he begins he wants to stop, lie plunges iißo a murder plot, which inevitably results in the group immediately concerned being broken up. A SAVING FEATURE. There is a saving feature of the revolutionary situation in Bengal. The Bengali may worship Michael Collins and his gunmen from afar, hut reading will never make him a man of stamina. Willing- but weak—and always, like Kipling's Balm, a "fearful person" when lie dabbles in assassination lie is rather to he despised than feared. The Labour Party in Great Britain appears to think that economic questions are hound up with the Indian movement for self-government. Not at all. It is entirely political, ft is useless to try to interest the Bengali in the grievances of downtrodden labour. A Labour M.B. and a writer on industrial subjects who was recently in India suffered disillusionment, as do all his kind when they try to talk on labour questions to their Indian colleagues. After investigating the conditions of employment in the Calcutta jute mills, this member of Parliament said with disgust : " 1 cannot find the Swarajists in tho least concerned with social questions or anxious to improve the condition of their people. They are politicians pure and simple.” ft is true. What may be said of the revolutionary movement in Bengal applies equally to nil of India. The word polities has • a very limited interpretation. It, simply means getting hold of the administrative machinery that rules the country in order to share Die spoils of -office. What tho Indian politician aims at is the establishment of an Indian Bureaucracy instead of a British Bureaucracy in order that he may dominate the masses—not for their good but for his own ends.