IN INDIA

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1930, Page 5

IN INDIA

FRONTIER TRIBES ATTACK

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

DELHI. Nov. 9

Some wild tribesmen yesterday swooped down on a north-west irontier police lorry at I.onilni. They killed a driver and a head constable, and captured a rifle and live hundred rounds of ammunition. Hidden behind boulders, the tribesmen punctured the tyres Hi the lorry with rifle shots. Their fire was hotly returned by the police escort, several ni whim; were wounded in n hand-to-hand battle.

Troops were then rushed to the scene, but the raiders escaped. vSiniultaenosuly, a clash occurred between a party of raiders and frontier levies, near Kalat. Ten of the raiders were killed. ATTACK ON 1-OLICE STATION. DELHI, Nov. 8. A crowd of several thousand last night attacked the Marhawadi police station, in Bombay, and stoned the occupants, twenty of whom, including the superintendent and six officers, were injured. Police reinforcements dispersed the crowd after a .series of baton charges, injuring two hundred . THE LONDON CONFERENCE. RUGBY, Nov. 7. Lord Peel, former Secretary of State for India and a member of the forthcoming Round Table Conference, in a speech, dealt with the difficulties which the conference would have to face. One of the difficulties if the existing situation was that j there had been some confusion in the Indian political mind between the questions of status and constitution. Indian thought was anxious that there should be no question of inferiority and that India should he placed on complete equality with the great Dominions. Unfortunately, some of tho constitutional problems had been considered, to some extent, and merely from the point of view of what, under the present coiulitons, would be the best constitution for India, but whatever the new constitution did, or did not place Indian on an equal.ty with the Dominions. The relations of the Hindu and Moslem communities, the protection of minorities and the relation of the Princes and their States to the more self-governing India, all presented great problems for the Conference. He did not think it would be the duty of the conference to frame a constitution, but to indicate clearly to the Government wlmt were the general lines upon which it wished the constitution ■ was to be framed. Nor did he think it would make decisions by vote. The conference was not representative in the .sense that it had been elected by constituencies. Another great difficulty was the Extremist Congress section, which was irreconcilable, and would not lie represented at nil. A great responsibility would, therefore, be thrown upon the parties who wero represented. The King will open the Indian Round Table) Cenference in the Royal Gallery of the House of Lords next Wednesday. Subsequent meetings will be held in St. James’s Palace, where preparations for the Conference have now been completed. The Secretariate of the Conference has been housed at the Palace for some time past, and in the last few days the Palace has been used for preliminary, informal meetings of the Indian States and the British Indian delegates, as well as for smaller groups. The table around which the eightysix delegates will sit has been specially constructed foi; the purpose, and is now in position in Queen Anne’s drawing-room, in which the plenary sessions of the recent Naval Conference were held.

AFRIDLS ASK FOR PEACE.

FURTHER DISTURBANCES

(Received this day at 9.40 a.m.)

DELHI, Nov. 9

Afridis are seeking peace, having; como at last to realise what damage five squadrons of Royal Air Force aeroplanes can do, and fearing with the approach of winter and the Government's blockade that- their food problem may be acute. They have approached the .British Government and asked for a. oonlerenco to settle matters, which wore not settled at the recent abortive conference.

'The British are now in a position to lay down terms which will ensure the permanent safety of Peshawar. The police were forced to lire on an unruly mob in Bombay. A party of constables returning to the station after dispersing rowdy demonstrators, were attacked by a mob. 'Hie police bred their revolvers in the air. One ma,n was injured, and then they bad te light their way through. Two members of the “People’s Battalion” went to the Bombay High Court where the Union Jack was pulled down and the Congress llag hoisted.