THE Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY. ABRIL 27. 1928. THE INDIAN EMPIRE.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 April 1928, Page 2

THE Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY. ABRIL 27. 1928. THE INDIAN EMPIRE.

1 The problem of dealing with the a-- ! piiations of the native population of | India in regard to national government | lias been described by Sir John Simon I as one of “immensity and complexity." I Sir John went out at the head of a { British Commission to consider the | subject, and on completing his pre- ! liminury survey, and having regard no | doubt to the unfriendly reception giv- | on the Commission in different qttar- ? tors, the two words used profitably | describe the impression on his mind, ( and that of his fellow members, very j completely. The demand or immerirlc in India is not a new one, and it is not surprising that there is abroad r n •‘-pirit of unrest among 1 1 10 native mind. It is a world ecniplainl. for tm all sides the native mind i- moi*e active now than ever it was. There are also (subsidiary causes, in that there arc those the world over always prone to the task of -lining up trouble. Britain has shouldered no mean load iu the many jobs she has undertaken of carrying the white man's burden, hut on top of the natural difficulties, there is the readiness with which rivals and enemies of Britain are ready to stimulate opposition to British rule, und India is not any exception I rom such underground action. The agent- of Bolshevism are very active in Asia generally. The effect of their work has been manifest in China and the Far F.a.st oonerally, and it appears to lie only a continuation of circumstances which checks their evil influences in India. To begin with India is a vast country, enormously peopled. Thirty years ago an able Anglo-Indian described tlio country as a continent larger than the whole of Europe, excluding ltussia. with fifty million more inhabitants, “fuller of ancient nations, of great I cities, of varieties of civilisation, of armies, nobilities, priesthoods, organisations for every com oivable purpose, Irom the spreading of great' religions down to systematic murder.” There arc thrice as many Bengalese as there

are Frenchmen, the Hindustanis outnumber the whites in the United States: the Mahrattas would fill Spain to overflowing: the people of the Pun- 1 jab and Scinde are double the popula- 1 tion of Turkey; and these account for only four of the principal divisions of the country. The fighting races of India —“as big as ourselves, ns brave as ourselves, and more regardless of , dentil than ourselves”—alone numlser about 110 millions. Amid all these three hundred millions or more. ( “nfliose mere description would Jill volumes,’' we are told that “the tide j cf life flows as vigorously as in Europe.” There is as much labour, as j much ambition, as much competition. and probably even more loving and lusting and thieving and murdering. X:> wonder that Sir John Simon re- 1 gards India as a complex problem. An ' interesting sidelight was thrown the c other day pu' the question thfit Sir

John Simon is now considering by an Anglo-Indian official visiting Sydney. This witness lias no hope of a report from the Commission that will satisfy any large sect inn of the people. 11 is rllicf reasons are the bitterness that divides Hindus from Alohammeda ns, and the caste system, which renders all social and political equality impossible. Recently the ‘‘Bound Table" drew attention to the pitiable plight of the "depresod" classes in India. Without studying Kathleen Mayo's “Mollier India.’’ with all its horrors, must people know that the ‘‘imtuudiab|rs” endure a very humiliating find Wretched servitude. There are about sixty millions of them, and every year they hold a congress, at which they ask the Hindu castes “In grant them certain elementary human rights." Of course they have hitherto pleaded in vain, und therefore they have declared that they will nut assi-t to boycott the Commission, as “they lui'-e no hope anil n:> future except under British prolection." Here is one strong argument. at least, against Home Rule for I nil ia.