INDIA’S WORST DANGER

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1927, Page 1

INDIA’S WORST DANGER

VICEROY'S GRAVE WARNING. ALLAHABAD. Aug. 29. Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, addressing a. joint sesicn of the Legislature at Simla this morning, said that in seventeen months “the toll taken by the bloody strife” arising out of tlie communal tension between Hindus and Moslems was between 250 and 300 killed and more than 2500 injured.

He foreshadowed a lonferenee to discuss the tension and pleaded feigned will and co-operation from the responsible leaders of both great communities and others in order to arrive at ii practical solution of the problem which was reacting on the future of India. ,

For several months past lie, had wanted to speak to the conscience and heart of India upon the question which dwarfed all others.

Recalling salient incidents during the seventeen months that he had been in India Lord Irwin pointed out that tlie whole landscape was overshadowed by the lowering clouds of the communal tension, which repeatedly discharged thunderbolts, spreading devastating havoc throughout the land. PARALYSIS TN CALCUTTA. The paralysis that overtook the commercial life of Calcutta was only less serious than the c-ivic loss flowing from naked, unashamed violation of the law, which perforce had to he reasserted bv drastic and severe methods.

The same, sinister influence had lieen working at Palma, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and other places. National self-government' must he founded upon the self-government and self-control of individuals. Where the citizens were not possessed of these qualities the nation’s political selfgovernment was merely an empty name, serving to disguise under an honourable title the continuance of something perilously akin to civil

Making a final appeal that all should sink their religious differences Lord Irwin said:

“It is because I believed—and T think India believes—in pure spiritual forces that will assert themselves over material expression that T have ventured once more to trace out the only path along which India can lead her peoples to take an appropriate part in the fulfilment of an ordered purpose for humanity.”