KEIR HARDIE.

NZ Truth, Issue 128, 30 November 1907, Page 8

KEIR HARDIE.

REPUDIATES REUTER'S RUBBISH.

Maligaantly Mendacious Messages.

*fferdle tfie Maliaraiali of Mymensingh's " Honored Guest;"

' IKs me Sad no 'dttlfit' wflen sensa.XktDal statements as to. the incidents •of Mt JSeir fiardie's tour of India Were being cabled to 'Austaralasia, and were being adversely commented upon by the daily Newspapers, ■Keir Hardie has simply been malignpnfcly m-isrepreseated. It appears "that wthe campaign against Keir Har4ie iwras initiated, practically, by but one :«nau, and this man was, the cqjresjpondeat m Oalcutia of Reuter's Agenicy. Cablegraitts sent by other Calcutta cprrespondents did not contain. :any of i?he sensational allegations ; Tnade by the Reuter * 'rotter," and, larhat is more, the other coires.pon.dv«nts. denied that the statements imjfuted to Hardi? actually had been ■"made by Inm. It appears that the ; hullabaloo had heeti raised by the "Daily Mail," that notorious ''y.el16w" journal,. and the .Australasian, j-daily newspapers followed m the steps <«f their English "yellow" model. The .truth as to w.hat Hardie did, and did .not say, is giyen m the latest issue pt the British "Labor Leader," received by . us, and is as follows:—

MR. HARDIE IN INpIA.

Our warning last ■ week" against ■placing trust m -the reports of Mlr ! Hardies sayings and doings m India forwarded from biassed sources has been amply justified by events; It would appear, indeed, that •Reuter's Agency has misbehaved' ■badly m this matter, and that its reports have been, quite perverse ones. - Elsewhere .we give Mr Hardies own. 'Statements •as to his speeches and actions, w.hieh, lie has cabled to the "Daily Mail." It is■aiow recognised by the- press, alike m this country and m India, that however stern and intense Mr Hardies utterances may have been, he ,took no part whatever m a metely inflammatory local campaign » and that the sensational' accounts of his proceedings were pure inventions,

We would here draw attention to the fact that the Council of the ' Independent Labor Party has em-< phaticatly repudiated the statement •which appeared m the "Daily, ■News'- and other papers to the ef- ; feet that the I.L.p. •dissociated it-' . self from Mr- Hardies speeches and. •proceedings m India. The party has made no pronouncement at all on :the subject. Nor cpuld the party > effer any such pronouncement upon fche mere foundation of Indian press reports. The 1.L.P. , as we said last week, has declared itself , m favor of ! CONSTITUTIONAL' GOVERN- : M-ENT IN INDIA, | and the social emancipation of?wth'S^ poverty-stricken Indian people.,, .Be. ■believe that Mr Hardie has hadJ Fthat purpose solely m. view, and the party will stand solidly with' liini m. conveying to the Indian.;: people tlie strongest expression o& ! the sympathy find support of Bri- ; •tish Socialisis m their struggle a- ' gainst social and<political oppression. ;i

Mr Hardies own statements are* given m an article, entitled, "TheY Oreat Press Scare."- Tbis isasfol-,. lows :—

The great press- scare was-tlie one! . huge sensation: ofiast week., The ; iway m whieli it was engineered' '■ lorjttis -a striking o&ject-lesson m; rbhe aft of audacious and malignant misrepresentation r it all arose,, ©f . course, .m connection with. Mr Keir Harare's tour m. Eastern £en-' gaL This tour of investigation was; misrepresented from the very, beginning. Mr Hardie .was described as going about inflaming the minds of the Bengalese, fomenting sedition, and. imperilling British rule. . On the Wednesday the panic I reached its climax. The morning v ■ papers- contained a . report that 3£eit; •Hardie "had; stated that 'the condi- ' <<tion of Bengal was worse than that ; of Russia,'? and that "the atrpci- i ties committed by officials would, 1 if they were known, evoke more ; i

HORROR IN ENGLAND ■than the Turkish outrages m 'Armenia." ..

Whereupon the Yellow Press w.as^ seized, with a violent eruption. It vomited forth volumes of flame and smoke and mud>, and' roared at Keir Hardie like: a thousand bellowing ■bulls ofßashan, and even journals less tainted with insanity felt ex•tremely shocked, and took upon 'themselves to administer severe censure on the author of this "scan-^ dalous utterance." And, as might have. /been anticipated, it was all, so to speak, a mare's nest, and Reuter's Calcutta 'correspondent, whose . - CANARDS ARE NOTORIOUS.

was at the bottom of it all

On the Thursday, Mr Hardie, af-

<ter haviflg spent a weefc fa-Bengstt,-sent a cablegram to the "Daily} Mail," which appeared m the Friday's issue. In this cablegram Mr Hardie gave a brief review of the economic conditions and political situation m Eastern BengaJ, and concluded with the fallowing significant caution .:— i

People, at home should be. careful of trusting reports, especially of Reuter's agents. The grossly distorted home reports are publicly censured by the leading Calcutta journals.

Amusement here this morning at th© cabled comments of the ''Daily Mail," "Hie ''Times," and the Standard" art their leading columns. They, have been misled by .Reuter's. 'J. ICEIR KARDIE.

In reply; to a "Daily Mail" cablegram, inquiring whether lie had really made the specific statements attributes- toshim, Mr Jlardie c*hj,ed. the ;?■■"■

'FOLLOWING- DECISIVE REPU-

DXATION :- Calcutta, -Thursday, Oct. 3. The statements are fabrications, I said that the prohibition of meetings, etc., reminded me of Russia, and the viola.tion. of Hindu women by Mahommedaa rowdies (reminded me) of Armenia, and that Colonial Ccovernment was the ultimate goal, " J. KEIR HARDIE. . And yet on the very same day on which Mr Hardie cabled. Ids repudiation of the statement attributed to him, Renter's Calcutta correspondent had the nerye to send a cable to the British Press, m which •he stated that :— Mr Keir Hardie, M.P., admitted m an interview that the statements, attributed f o liim were not exaggerated, it would really be- difficult to

FIND TERMS STRONG (ENOUGH to condemn., such malignant mendacity.

If corroborative evidence were needed, we have it m the cablegrams sen* by other Calcutta correspondents. Thus, the M Trib.une/'' correspondent, cabling from Calcutta, on October 3rd, said :— Much amusement has been created •by the extraordinary scare which has been raised m the London Press concerning the visit of Mr K : eir Bardic, M.P. No Calcuttanewspaper has expressed such views, and there is nothing m -the: situation 'here to justify, a foolish panic. A "Central News" message also; contained the following statement ; Considerable astonishment is felt -here m loyalist circles over the se- : yere criticisms of Mr Keir Har- , "die which JiatJc appeared m the London papers, the general opinion' being that hefcas done little or no- . [thing to justify them. None of the-: papers here, either English or native, has taken such exception to •his conduct, which is thought to have been on the whole, quite

PROPER AND DISCREET, as becoming the honored guest of ,the Maharajah >of Mymensingh, one of the signatosfres to the loyal manifesto, and of several prominent officials.,

The coannnentfcs of the . Calcutta]

Press might be cited also. 'Th> * f tenglis-hman, ' ' an S^ng-to-Indian newspaper holding extreme ' loyalist .views, the ''JuOa&n Daily News," and the ''Statesman/ as well- as , the "Pioneer" of' lAUahatfad, all ■had a favorable word to say s for ■Mr Hardie. Such is the history of the great scare, whose au^ox " and engineer was Renter's ooigcdspondent. His character is well-3cnown m. 1 Calcutta and only, a few"W«.eks ago sixOalcutta editors deemed it advisable ito send a fetter to the British press calling; public attention to his SCANDAIiOtfS DISTORTIONS OF ■FACT,

and severely the unveracious character of Ms reports. His misrepresentation of Keir Hardie is merely -another illustration of his chronic unveracifcy, and shows the absurdity of placing any reliance upon information proceeding from such a discredited and discreditable source..

Meanwhile; Reuter's representative continued his campaign of misrepresentation, m view of which Mr Bardic has deemed it advisable to call public gttention to the fact through the colunins of the. "Daily Mail," and to m alee an appeal to the British public.

MR BARDIE'S CABLEGRAM, dated MoKday, October yth, which appeared m the "Daily Mail" of